Artist's impression of Milky Way inflows and outflows

This illustration envisions the Milky Way galaxy's gas recycling above and below its stellar disk. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observes the invisible gas clouds rising and falling with its sensitive Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) instrument. The spectroscopic signature of the light from background quasars shining through the clouds gives information about their motion. Quasar light is redshifted in clouds shooting up and away from the galactic plane, while quasar light passing through gas falling back down appears blueshifted. This differentiation allows Hubble to conduct an accurate audit of the outflowing and inflowing gas in the Milky Way's busy halo—revealing an unexpected and so-far unexplained surplus of inflowing gas.

Astronomers have discovered an unexplained surplus of gas flowing into our Milky Way after conducting a galaxy-wide audit of outflowing and inflowing gas. Rather than a gas equilibrium and "balanced books," ten years of data from the Hubble Space Telescope showed there is more gas coming in than going out.