Astronomers Discover ‘Space Tornadoes’ Around the Milky Way’s Core

Swirling through the Milky Way’s central zone, in the turbulent region surrounding the supermassive black hole at the core of our galaxy, dust and gases constantly churn as energetic shock waves ripple throughout. An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have sharpened our view of this action by a factor of 100, discovering a surprising new filamentary structure in this mysterious region of space.

Although the galaxy’s central molecular zone (CMZ) has long been known to be a region filled with swirling dust and gas molecules cycling through formation and destruction, the mechanism that drives this process has remained elusive. Molecules serve as tracers for various processes in molecular clouds, with silicon monoxide (SiO) being particularly useful in detecting the presence of shock waves. Using ALMA’s high resolution and sensitivity to map distinct spectral lines within the molecular clouds at the center of the Milky Way, an international team of astronomers led by Kai Yang of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University has delineated a new type of long, narrow filamentary structure at a significantly finer scale. The dynamic interaction between this turbulent environment and the slim filaments produced as shocks ripple through provides a more complete view of the cyclical processes within the CMZ.

“When we checked the ALMA images showing the outflows, we noticed these long and narrow filaments spatially offset from any star-forming regions. Unlike any objects we know, these filaments really surprised us. Since then, we have been pondering what they are,” Yang summarized. These “slim filaments” were an unexpected, serendipitous find in the emission lines of SiO and eight other molecules. Their line-of-sight velocities are coherent and are inconsistent with outflows. Thus, they do not fit the profile of other, previously discovered types of dense gas filaments; furthermore, the filaments show no association with dust emission, and they do not appear to be in hydrostatic equilibrium.

“Our research contributes to the fascinating Galactic Center landscape by uncovering these slim filaments as an important part of material circulation,” Xing Lu, a research professor at Shanghai Astronomical Observatory and a corresponding author of the research paper, summarizes, “We can envision these as space tornados: they are violent streams of gas, they dissipate shortly, and they distribute materials into the environment efficiently.” It remains unknown how these slim filaments initially arise, but shock processes emerge as a likely explanation, Yang’s team reports. This inference is based on several key observations: the rotational transition of SiO 5-4 clearly seen in ALMA observations, the presence of CH3OH masers, and the relative abundances of complex organic molecules in these slim filaments.

“ALMA’s high angular resolution and extraordinary sensitivity were essential to detect these molecular line emissions associated with the slim filaments, and to confirm that there is no association between these structures with dust emissions,” Yichen Zhang, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong university and a corresponding author of the research paper, emphasized. “Our discovery marks a significant advancement, by detecting these filaments on a much finer 0.01 parsec scale to mark the working surface of these shocks.”

This breakthrough offers a more detailed view of the dynamic processes occurring in the CMZ, and suggests a cyclical process of material circulation. First, shocks act as a mechanism to create these slim filaments, releasing SiO and several complex organic molecules such as CH3OH, CH3CN, and HC3N into the gas phase and into the interstellar medium. Then, the slim filaments dissipate to refuel the widespread shock-released material in the CMZ. Finally, the molecules freeze back into dust grains, resulting in a balance between depletion and replenishment. Assuming that the slim filaments exist throughout the CMZ as abundantly as in this sample, there would be a cyclical balance between depletion and replenishment.

“SiO is currently the only molecule that exclusively traces shocks, and the SiO 5-4 rotational transition is only detectable in shocked regions that have both relatively high densities and high temperatures. This makes it a particularly valuable tool for tracing shock-induced processes in the dense regions of the CMZ,” Yang said. It is hoped that future ALMA observations covering multiple SiO transitions and census observations spanning the CMZ, combined with numerical simulations, will confirm the origin of the slim filaments as well as the possibility of the cyclic processes within this extraordinary region of the Milky Way.

About ALMA

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).
ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

About NRAO

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on March 19, 2025.