A galactic skeleton of dark interstellar gas tendrils might help map the scaffolding of our galaxy, a new study suggests.
Six of these “bones,” each 40 to 150 light-years long and less than a light-year wide, appear to lie along nearby spiral arms of gas and stars that wind around the Milky Way. The thinness of the bones potentially provides a precise tool for tracing the larger framework of our galaxy, a task that is fiendishly difficult for astronomers trapped inside the Milky Way.