Previously undetected feature of Milky Way discovered by astronomers

Astronomers have discovered a previously undetected feature of the Milky Way.

A group of young stars and star-forming gas clouds has been found protruding from the galaxy's Sagittarius Arm and observers have detected a previously unknown feature with an orientation “dramatically different than the arm’s”.

While it was previously thought that young stars align closely with the shape of the arms they reside in, the researchers found four star-forming gas clouds, or nebulae, sticking out of the Sagittarius Arm “like a splinter poking out from a plank of wood”.