Astronomers find alcohol cloud spanning 288 billion miles

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Continuum emission in W3(OH) from Guilloteau et al. (1983) (left) and Wilner et al. (1999) (right) superimposed with our methanol maser spots (white dots) OH maser filament (red contours) and extended methanol filaments (green contours). Credit: JIVE
Continuum emission in W3(OH) from Guilloteau et al. (1983) (left) and Wilner et al. (1999) (right) superimposed with our methanol maser spots (white dots), OH maser filament (red contours) and extended methanol filaments (green contours). Credit: JIVE

Astronomers based at Jodrell Bank Observatory have discovered a giant bridge of methyl alcohol, spanning approximately 288 billion miles, wrapped around a stellar nursery. The gas cloud could help our understanding of how the most massive stars in our galaxy are formed.


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