Find the giant hydrogenated cloud in the Whirlpool Galaxy

Astronomers carefully observed the M51 galaxy, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy because of its characteristic spiral structure that shows a huge hydrogenation cloud.

To make this discovery, astronomers at Case Western Reserve University first used a 75-year-old telescope in the southwestern mountains of Arizona.

The giant cloud of ionized hydrogen gas ejected from the Whirlpool galaxy.(Image source: phys).

When investigating, they discovered a strange group of objects. It turns out that a giant cloud of ionized hydrogen gas is ejected from the Whirlpool galaxy and then essentially "cooked" by radiation from the galaxy's black hole M51.

Mihos and a group of collaborators led by graduate student Aaron Watkins, and including Case Western Reserve director Paul Harding and University of Wisconsin astronomer Matthew Bershady published the discovery in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"We know some clouds like this in distant galaxies, but not in a cloud of M51 that's easy to see like this. It's a special thing," Mihos said.

This gives astronomers a great opportunity to study how emissions from galaxies and black holes can affect the regions of chemical clouds that also produce themselves.