Scientists Discover "Iron Bar" In Space That May Reveal Earth's Future

Scientists have discovered a massive bar-shaped cloud of iron atoms in space, which could help them understand the future of Earth. The unusual structure was found inside the Ring Nebula, a famous and colorful cloud formed when a dying sun-like star released its outer layers, reported BBC.

This iron bar is about 500 times larger than the orbit of Pluto and is located at a distance of 2,283 light-years from Earth. Scientists at Cardiff University and University College London discovered it with the help of a new telescope instrument called the WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (Weave).

Scientists said that how this iron bar was formed is not yet clear, but there are some possible theories about its formation. One possibility is that this nebula formed when the parent star was collapsing. Another possibility is that it could be space plasma, left over from a destroyed rocky planet and present there after the star's expansion. If this is correct, it may also give some clues about Earth's distant future, when the Sun will expel its outer layers and swallow the planet in billions of years.

The team said they plan to do further studies to find out what exactly this iron bar is, where it came from and what it indicates.
Lead author Dr Roger Wesson, from Cardiff University and UCL, said the Ring Nebula has been studied before with many instruments, but Weave allows us to see it in a new way and in more detail than ever before.

By acquiring a spectrum across the entire nebula, images can be created at any wavelength and the chemical composition of any location can be determined, he said. They said that when they processed the data and looked at the images, a particular structure became clearly visible-a bar of previously unknown ionized iron molecules, located in the middle of the ring.

Co-author Professor Janet Drew said the team needed more information, particularly to see whether other chemical elements were also present along with the iron, as this would help determine the correct formation model.

The Weave instrument is scheduled to conduct eight surveys over the next five years, covering objects ranging from nearby white dwarfs to distant galaxies. Wesson said it would be surprising if this iron bar was unique to the Ring Nebula.