Astronomers discover 3,000 light-year-long ‘splinter’ in Milky Way Galaxy’s spiral arm

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

A group of young stars and star-forming gas clouds has been found protruding from the Milky Way's Sagittarius Arm.

The splinter extends roughly 3,000-light-years out from the spiral arm.

"Most models of the Milky Way suggest that the Sagittarius Arm forms a spiral that has a pitch angle of about 12 degrees, but the structure we examined really stands out at an angle of nearly 60 degrees," lead study author Michael Kuhn said.

Nasa’s Spitzer Space Telescope discovered the structure in conjunction with data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission.