Humanity has been studying the stars for as long as we could look up. At first we could do little more than name the constellations, but now we examine galaxies, nebulae, and watch as stars live and die. There’s still a lot to learn about our own cosmic backyard, though. A team of astronomers from Australia have published findings that describe “noodle-like” structures weaving through the Milky Way. So, the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Probably not, but it still might require reevaluating our understanding of the galaxy’s structure and evolution.

Scientists had never detected these massive structures before because they’re invisible to most observation techniques. The “noodles” are more properly known as extreme scattering events (ESEs), and they’re essentially an unusual fluctuation in the thin cloud of dust, plasma, and radiation found between stars. This mishmash of cosmic debris, known as the interstellar medium (ISM), can clump up and form lenses that deflect radio waves on Earth.

ESEs were first detected in 1987 by astronomers as the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, but they are transient and extremely hard to find. Radio waves are the only known way to spot an ESE as they are invisible in optical, x-ray, and infrared. By the time astronomers think they’ve found one, it’s gone. The researchers spotted an ESE using a new radio surveying technique and the CSIRO antenna array. By catching it just as the ISM started to distort, they were able to watch the ESE unfold in real time. Followup observations were made in both radio and visible light spectrums.

There are two competing theories about how ESEs are formed. The first holds that the fluctuations in the ISM are sheets of plasma, and the other says they are cold clouds of gas pulled together by gravity. Both origins could produce ESEs about 100 million miles long.

To know which is right, you need to study ESEs in detail, which is what the team from down under is working on. The data from this new analysis calls into question the first theory as the light curve scientists expect from plasma sheets isn’t present. And what of the gravitating self-clouds? That does appear to be supported by the data, but it would mean there’s a huge amount of mass that could affect the galaxy as a whole.

With just this one observation of an ESE in action, it’s impossible to know the geometry of the structures, but they appear to be long sheets or cylinders (i.e. noodles) of ionized gas. Scientists will need to track more ESEs as they form and break up to know for sure. Such observations might allow the team to more fully characterize the Milky Way’s interstellar medium and stellar evolution.