Researchers detected the Cepheus spur, a bridge of massive blue stars, while creating the most accurate map of the galaxy to date.
A team of researchers from the Spanish Astrobiology Center (CAB) has presented the most accurate map of the Milky Way to date, and described the existence of the “Cepheus spur,” a formation of blue stars hotter than the sun that had remained hidden until now.
The team put together the map of the Earth’s “solar neighborhood” using the Gaia telescope of the European Space Agency, detailing the spiral arms of the stars that make up our galaxy. These include Orion, where the Solar System is located; Perseus, located at the outer edge of the galaxy, and Sagittarius, towards the center of the Milky Way.
Scientists led by Michelangelo Pantaleoni González and Jesús Maíz Apellániz also discovered a hidden structure that they named the Cepheus spur, a bridge of massive blue stars between the Orion Arm and Perseus constellation. A blue star has at least three times the mass of the sun, and has its moniker because its intense heat means it appears blue to our eyes.
