Fimbulthul stream explained

Fimbulthul is a tidal stellar stream torn off from Omega Centauri, the largest globular cluster of our Milky Way galaxy. The stream contains 309 known stars stretching over 18° in the constellations of Hydra and Centaurus, matching the same age as the globular cluster. Omega Centauri is thought to be the nucleus of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way.^[1]

The stream was discovered in the Gaia DR2 star database that determined the direction, distances and motion of over one billion stars.^[2]

The name Fimbulthul is a river in Norse mythology.

See also

• List of stellar streams

References

• Identification of the long stellar stream of the prototypical massive globular cluster ω Centauri Nature Astronomy (2019)
  • Preprint at arxiv.org Rodrigo Ibata, Michele Bellazzini, Khyati Malhan, Nicolas Martin, Paolo Bianchini, 2019
• The Streams of the Gaping Abyss: A population of entangled stellar streams surrounding the Inner Galaxy Rodrigo Ibata, Khyati Malhan, Nicolas Martin, 2019

External links

• Gaia: The sky is littered with undigested galaxies
• Omega Centauri's lost stars
• Omega Centauri’s lost stars

Notes and References

1. Eva . Noyola . Karl . Gebhardt . Marcel . Bergmann . Gemini and Hubble Space Telescope Evidence for an Intermediate Mass Black Hole in omega Centauri . 10.1086/529002 . 2008 . The Astrophysical Journal . 676 . 2 . 1008 . 0801.2782 . 2008ApJ...676.1008N . 208867075 .
2. https://astronomycommunity.nature.com/users/253571-khyati-malhan/posts/47356-ghostly-tributaries-to-our-galaxy-catastrophic-tale-of-the-most-massive-globular-cluster-of-the-milky-way Catastrophic tale of the most massive globular cluster of the Milky Way