A supernova is the most likely cause of a 500-light-wear wide hole that split an ancient molecular cloud in two.
Scientists have discovered a gigantic hole blown out of the Milky Way, and believe a powerful supernova 10 million years ago might be to blame. The gap or «cavity» as astronomers are describing it, was described this week in a paper published this week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters as a spherical void cut out of the Perseus and Taurus molecular clouds and spans nearly 500 light-years across. «We have two theories—either one supernova went off at the core of this bubble and pushed gas outward forming what we now call the ‘Perseus-Taurus Supershell,'» said lead author Shmuel Bialy, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics (CfA), «or a series of supernovae occurring over millions of years created it over time.» «Hundreds of stars are forming or exist already at the surface of this giant bubble,» Bialy added.
