💫 Chaos at the heart of the Milky Way as never seen before

At the center of our galaxy, a vast region of gas and dust remains hidden from our view. A new observation now offers us an unprecedented vision, revealing its internal mechanisms. How do stars form and die in this unique setting, close to a supermassive black hole?

The ALMA telescope array, perched in the Atacama Desert in Chile, has produced the largest image ever made of the Central Molecular Zone. This region, about 650 light-years wide, surrounds the central black hole Sagittarius A* and constitutes the closest galactic core we can study with such precision. The image reveals a cosmic landscape made of filaments of cold matter, where stars are forming.


In this zone, star formation occurs with an intensity far greater than that observed in the periphery of the galaxy. Gas clouds collapse to give birth to massive stars, some of which end their existence in spectacular explosions. These extreme conditions allow astronomers to better understand the life cycle of stars in environments similar to those of distant, young, and active galaxies.

The ACES study has also allowed the identification of the chemical composition of the present gas. Simple molecules, like silicon monoxide, coexist with more elaborate organic compounds such as methanol or ethanol. This chemical diversity is a consequence of the processes at work.


The researchers indicate that this region shares many characteristics with galaxies in the young Universe, where stars formed in comparable chaos. By studying the Central Molecular Zone, they hope to trace the evolution of galaxies over time.

The angular size of the zone, equivalent to three full moons, required combining many individual observations to form a coherent mosaic.

This work has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It paves the way for new explorations to grasp how extreme environments influence the birth of stars and the growth of galaxies.