Astronomers have found a void around the center of the Milky Way that is absent of any young stars. The area extends out about 8,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. This article on Physorg has a nice artist's rendition of the distribution:
Even with telescopes, we can't see this Cepheid desert very well because it is covered by space dust. An international team of astronomers, lead by professor Noriyuki Matsunaga, were able to analyze this region using a telescope that detects stellar objects in the infrared. They found that while this region has plenty of old stars, there aren't any new ones being born. However, in the very center of the galaxy- the region extending out to about 150 light years- there appears to be a ring of new stars revolving around the center.
The finding boggles the mind and challenges our conventional ideas about the formation of the Milky Way. It would make sense if the entire center was void of new stars, seeing as older stars would have had more time to spiral in towards the galaxy's center. But that ring around the center challenges any alternate theory that could have been proposed. Any ideas about what's going on here? I'm stumped.
More information can be found at the Cornell University Library:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1606.07943
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