Astronomers working with an array of radio-wave detectors, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, have found what they believe is the cause of a fracture in the ‘bone’ of the Milky Way.
They believe a pulsar, an extremely dense remnant of a supermassive star explosion, impacted with the ‘bone’, known as ‘The Snake’, at a speed of between 1.6 million and 3.2 million km/h.
This is estimated to have deformed the magnetic field of the bone, deforming its radio signal.
Scientists use radio waves to detect these bones as they are formed of particles that spiral along magnetic fields, releasing radio waves as they go.
These bones, also known as ‘galactic bones’, are large formations of energised particles that spiral around the magnetic fields running through the Milky Way.
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