Milky Way: New Discovery in a Bulge in the Galaxy

While mapping out the places where the Cepheids (a class of stars varying in brightness) occur, astronomers at the helm of the VISTA telescope ran across a circle of young stars hidden behind dust clouds. They found something new in the Milky Way, that is, according to a release.

Astronomers led by Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUCC) were analyzing data collected between 2010 and 2014 at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, which belongs to the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

"The central bulge of the Milky Way is thought to consist of vast numbers of old stars. But the VISTA data has revealed something new - and very young by astronomical standards!" Istvan Dékány of PUCC and lead author of the study said in the release.

While looking at the data, they located 655 possible candidates as Cepheids. These are stars that grow and contract periodically; their cycles can last a few days to a few months, changing in brightness in the process, the release confirmed.

Cepheids come in a young and an older class, and out of the 655, this team found 35 stars that fit into the sub-type called classical Cepheids, said the release. These are very young and bright stars--unlike most of the older stars in the Milky Way's bulge.

Finding younger stars shows that there has been a continuous new supply of stars in the Milky Way's central area, over the past 100 million years, according to a release.

But that's not all. The scientists also located the skinny circle of young stars crossing the Milky Way's bulge, the release noted.

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