Up the chimney: pipes of hot gas stream from superbubbles bursting out of the disk of the Milky Way.(Out There)

Publication: Natural History

Publication Date: 01-NOV-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Natural History Magazine, Inc.

The Milky Way has gas--and lots of it. Throughout the flapjack-shaped spiral galaxy we live in, there's at least half a quadrillion Earth-masses' worth of free-floating gas, most of it cold, neutral hydrogen just, a few degrees above absolute zero. That's impressive, but it's still just a drop in the bucket on a galactic scale. Even excluding the ubiquitous dark matter that surrounds our galaxy [see "Dark and Darker," by Nell deGrasse Tyson, page 18], gas comprises only about 1 percent of the total mass of the Milky Way.

Still, that 1 percent packs a lot of astrophysical punch. As it flows and ebbs through the galaxy, interstellar gas serves as the raw material of creation--from the tiniest planet-bound life-forms to the grandest stars and nebulae.

Among the most spectacular patterns of gas flow are galactic...

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