It's been called the Cattail by them, but that's all they could make sense of it.Woah NellyScientists discovered a massive gas filament that extends across the Milky Way galaxy. It is so large it's almost impossible to believe that no one has seen it before.According to research accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the massive filament of space gases is so large that scientists aren't sure what it is.It is possible that the filament (dubbed the Cattail by ScienceAlert) may be a yet-undiscovered structure. It is equally possible that the Cattail is just part of one the Milky Ways spiral arms. This confusion illustrates how little we really know about our little corner of the universe.There are no clear answersIt seems that it should be simple to identify whether the Cattail is part the overall structure or its own thing. But it's not like Nanjing University scientists can zoom in to get a better view. ScienceAlert points out that measuring the distance between Earth and cosmic objects is a difficult task. The Cattail does not seem to fit either explanation.AdvertisementAdvertisementAbsolute units would be the most massive and far-reaching spiral arms of the galaxy. However, their alignment isn't exactly in line with the rest, making it difficult to understand what is going on.The scientists stated in their paper that it was puzzling that the structure did not follow the galactic disk's warp.These questions are still open to the existing data. However, they were added later. The observations offer new insight into our understanding of galactic structure.READ MORE: Astronomers Discover a New Structure in the Milky Way and Don't Know It [ScienceAlert]AdvertisementAdvertisementMore about cosmic giants: Why did the Largest Structures of the Universe Spin?
