NASA's Chandra Shows Milky Way is Surrounded by Halo of Hot Gas

[ourkind]

Our galaxy — and the nearby Large and Small Magellanic Clouds as well — appears to be surrounded by an enormous halo of hot gas, several hundred times hotter than the surface of the Sun and with an equivalent mass of up to 60 billion Suns, suggesting that other galaxies may be similarly encompassed and providing a possible clue to the mystery of the galaxy’s missing baryons.


Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/97535/astronomers-discover-milky-ways-hot-halo/#ixzz27PiJ7alE

[gregbradley]

I thought it was dead cold out in deep space.

Does that mean if you went there you'd burn up or is it so dispersed you wouldn't even be able to measure it?

Greg.

[Irish stargazer]

It must be incredibly thin, atoms per square centimetre. What is powering it though?

[ourkind]

From the Moderator comments in the article "They mean the thermal energy of individual particles of that gas."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_energy#Thermal_energy_of_in dividual_particles

[gregbradley]

I see so the individual particles are in intense motion but too dispersed to be seen except at massive distances. Odd though you'd think they would cool rapidly being so dispersed.

Greg.

[ourkind]

That's right Greg my thoughts exactly but I'm no expert, I am looking forward to more updates, discoveries and precisely a clearer answer to the question you raised.

[ap]

Pre-1950's educators taught us the universe was a perfect vacuume void of all substance and that gravity was attracting our atmosphere to Earth. With the invention of the GC/MS and space exploration we found the opposite to be true. In fact we discovered all space was occupied with gas and/or matter and the behavior of gas proves that a light gas will compress heavier gases. This is played out every day in the chemical industry where Nitrogen gas is used to compress ("blanket") heavier gases. It's evident in nature with our atmosphere of Oxygen & Nitrogen being compressed by the Helium, Hydrogen, Lithium, Etc. gases contained in interplanetary space surrounding us. Earth and it's atmosphere are submerged in an ocean of lighter expanding gases compressing our atmospheric gases thus making it impossible for our atmosphere to escape or even expand. The problem is that very few people have been taught post-1950's physics and the "powers to be" are not sharing post-50's information. What can be done to bring physics into the 21st century? Thanks! Angelo Pettolino Author: "The AP Theory"