Developments in Brief : Small Clouds of Gas Surprise Astronomers

Surprised astronomers have discovered small clouds of gas in the universe.

The clouds of ionized hydrogen are probably too small and too weak to yield much force in the constantly expanding universe, but their discovery changes the way astronomers view the makeup of space, said Ralph Fiedler, an astronomer at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

“It’s too early to say what their impact is,” he said. “What we can say is that they are completely and totally unexpected.”

Naval researchers discovered the clouds over the last seven years while monitoring radar signals from quasars at an observatory in Green Bank, W. Va.

Fiedler said, over the years, six to seven clouds passed between the quasars--powerful specks of light in the distant reaches of the universe--and the Green Bank observatory.

The odds of that many clouds passing across lines of radio signals would indicate billions exist in the universe, about as many as stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, the researchers said in telephone interviews.

He said astronomers at the laboratory speculate they are made from supernovas, exploding stars. But he said there is no concrete evidence of their origins.