While using Hubble Space Telescope to explore distant galaxies, Nasa observes a’mysterious protective barrier’.

NASA discovered “protective shields” surrounding faraway galaxies using its Hubble Space Telescope.

For many years, scientists believed that a protective halo of hot, ionized gas – dubbed the “Magellanic corona” – existed.

Scientists have revealed a new discovery pertaining to the Milky Way, seen in an illustration, and its massive companions – the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds

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Scientists have revealed a new discovery pertaining to the Milky Way, seen in an illustration, and its massive companions – the Large and Small Magellanic CloudsCredit: Getty
Nasa has found 'protective shields' around faraway galaxies via its Hubble Space Telescope

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Nasa discovered “protective shields” around faraway galaxies using its Hubble Space telescopeCredit: NASA, STScI, Leah Hustak

This stream of material was believed to exist between the Milky Way’s most massive companions – the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

Why are there so many?

These satellite galaxies orbit each other but are also torn apart by the gravitational pull from our galaxy.

They are still making stars, even though their turbulent relationship with the Milky Way.

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Scientists believed there must have been a shield of gases between them, but were unable to prove its existence.

The discovery

Now, thanks to Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope as well as a retired satellite called Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer(FUSE), astronomers have been able spot the elusive shield’.

The findings were published in Nature, Nasa by Dhanesh Krirao, a researcher. reported.

“A lot of people were struggling to explain how these streams of material could be there,”Krishnarao is an assistant professor at Colorado College.

“If this gas was removed from these galaxies, how are they still forming stars?”

Researchers address this in their study. “cocoons the two galaxies.”

This in turn prevents them from getting gas supplies. “from being siphoned off by the Milky Way,”This allows them to continue creating new stars.

“Galaxies envelop themselves in gaseous cocoons, which act as defensive shields against other galaxies,”Andrew Fox, co-investigator at the Space Telescope Science Institute of Baltimore, Maryland said so.

This theory has been long predicted

Astronomers first predicted the Magellanic’s corona’s existence several years ago.

“We discovered that if we included a corona in the simulations of the Magellanic Clouds falling onto the Milky Way, we could explain the mass of extracted gas for the first time,” explained Elena D’Onghia, a co-investigator at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

“We knew that the Large Magellanic Cloud should be massive enough to have a corona.”

These coronas are visible from more than 100,000 light years away from Magellanic clouds.

Nasa noted that mapping them required sifting through 30 years of archived data.

What are they important for?

The Magellanic cloud’s corona can be used to help scientists understand dwarf galaxies and their interactions, as well as how they evolve.

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“There’re lots of predictions from computer simulations about what they should look like, how they should interact over billions of years, but observationally we can’t really test most of them because dwarf galaxies are typically just too hard to detect,”Krishnarao.

The Magellanic Clouds are close to the sun, so they offer an opportunity for an alternative. “ideal opportunity”Nasa suggested that this phenomenon should be studied.

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