Christoph Federrath

In a kitchen where you're simultaneously boiling soup, frying meat, and baking bread, everything happens in one pot. That's roughly what the central molecular zone (CMZ) looks like — a dense clump of gas at the very heart of the Milky Way.

The churning cauldron of turbulence burns energy in two distinct ways. Vortices, like whirlpools in a maelstrom, twist the fluid and rub layers against each other. Shock waves, like a sudden clap, abruptly compress the gas and turn motion into heat.