Smith Cloud's got gas, and lots of it

One Hot Mama!   (Photo by Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Too late for an Alka-Seltzer…  Ready or not, gaseous Smith Cloud is on the distant horizon.

Billowing our way at 700,000 miles per hour, Smith’s is due to arrive in 30 million years. Could it be that Smith is hankering for a Milky Way?  Astronomers believe that it “likely originated in our galaxy and is boomeranging back.” 

This may seem spectacular, but is just another case of “what goes around, comes around.”  Nevertheless, Smith illustrates karma on a grand scale:  “Researchers believe it is 11,000 light-years long and 2,500 light-years across.”

Reflecting its Milky Way roots, Smith is rich in sulfur.  (Ever smell rotten eggs?)  On a brighter note, this indicates that Smith has been “enriched by material from the stars.”

Resources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/smith-cloud-images-space_us_56ab7f0be4b0010e80e9b513 

Copyright February 3, 2016 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved