China releases observation data of Galactic millimeter-wave molecular lines

NANJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting (MWISP) project released the Phase-1 dataset of millimeter-wave molecular spectral lines observation data, according to the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on Thursday.

The newly released data covers approximately 2,300 square degrees of the northern Galactic plane, spanning longitude ranges from 10 to 230 degrees and latitudes within ±5 degrees, said Yang Ji, chief scientist of the MWISP project and a researcher at the PMO.

By detecting millimeter-wave signals from interstellar carbon monoxide molecules, the project provides high-precision mapping of molecular gas distributions and structures of the Milky Way.

The MWISP project, which began systematic observations in 2011, has completed the full mapping of its first phase.

The release comprises over 100 million individual spectral lines accumulated by the research team, as well as more than 100,000 molecular cloud samples. Using the data, researchers have assembled the most complete millimeter-wave carbon monoxide molecular-line database to date, offering a panoramic view of Milky Way research.

Furthermore, the data also disclosed the intricate internal structure and physical properties of interstellar clouds, offering a "three-dimensional atlas" and "census report" of Milky Way's molecular gas for investigating the Galactic gas cycle and star formation.

The MWISP dataset can synergize with other major Chinese facilities such as the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) and the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), powering frontier research into areas such as the interstellar medium, Galactic structure and evolution, and the origins of high-energy cosmic rays, said Su Yang, an associate researcher at the PMO.