Article Posted on : - May 30, 2010

Artist's conception of the Milky Way. Photo: ASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech)

NEW DELHI (BNS): Astronomers have discovered various unknown regions of our Milky Way galaxy where massive stars are being formed.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has provided important new information about the structure of Milky Way galaxy, and in future it will help astronomers to yield new clues about its composition.

The star-forming regions discovered by the astronomers are called H II regions. In these sites, hydrogen atoms are stripped of their electrons by intense radiation from massive, young stars.

The researchers have used infrared and radio telescopes to find the hidden regions of the Milky Way galaxy.

"We found our targets by using the results of infrared surveys done with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and of surveys done with the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope, objects that appear bright in both the Spitzer and Very Large Array images we studied are good candidates for H II regions," Astronomer Loren Anderson of the Astrophysical Laboratory of Marseille in France, who worked on the project said in a NASA press release.

Further analysis of the region will help astronomers to determine the locations of the H II regions. Astronomers have also found concentrations of the regions at the end of the galaxy's central bar and in its spiral arms.