An exploding star punched a hole in space nearly 500 light-years ago 10 million years ago.

And strangely enough, we never noticed that enormous emptiness. But Gaia space observatory has now made the void visible. And in doing so, the observatory gives us more insight into how stars form.

The power of 3D

Gaia aims to create a 3D map of the universe. That such a 3D map can radically change our view of the universe is shown by this new research. Scientists have used Gaia data to create a 3D map of two molecular clouds that we previously only knew in 2D. “We’ve been able to observe these clouds for decades, but we didn’t know their true shape, depth or thickness,” said researcher Catherine Zucker. “Now we know exactly where they are.” And by determining the exact position of these molecular clouds, a mysterious void in space has also been discovered at first sight. The molecular clouds – called Perseus and Taurus – appear to embrace this spherical void.

supernova

But how did that mysterious void arise? The researchers do have ideas about that. They suspect that at the heart of the globular void was once a massive star, which exploded about 10 million years ago. The explosion threw gas and dust in all directions. And the Perseus and Taurus clouds are made up of remnants of that flung gas and dust.

New stars

The research radically changes our view of these molecular clouds. Thus, in fact, they are not two separate objects. Instead, they arose simultaneously. In addition, we see that in both molecular clouds today new stars are formed from gas that became available millions of years ago through a supernova explosion. “It shows that when a star dies, the supernova starts a chain reaction that eventually leads to the birth of new stars,” said researcher Shmuel Bialy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu11fUe_y6k
Video: Jasen Chambers / Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

It’s fascinating to see what secrets the universe reveals when viewed in 3D. And there is still much to discover. For example, in molecular clouds such as Perseus and Taurus. “There are many theories about how gas rearranges itself to form new stars,” Zucker said. “Astronomers have tested those theoretical ideas using simulations in the past, but now for the first time we can use real – non-simulated – 3D images to find out which theory works best.”