Giant Bubbles Discovered in the Center of the Milky Way

Scientists discovered in the center of the Milky Way galaxya population of space structures with their own radio emission. Education in its form resembles a giant hourglass or bubbles that emit radio emission and which, according to researchers, should not be there. These mysterious structures are located above and below the central region of our galaxy. An international team of scientists worked on the discovery, and the study itself was published in the journal Nature.

Many secrets are hidden in the vastness of the Milky Way galaxy

What is in the center of the Milky Way galaxy?

In the early 1980s, astronomer Farhad Youssef Zadeh,Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University, observed the center of the Milky Way galaxy when he discovered a strange, thin structure that emits its own radio emission. The scientist suggested that everything was to blame for the malfunction in the telescope, which blurred the field of view and that there were no oddities in the center of the Milky Way. Then I deleted observations about structures from my data. However, upon further observations, this oddity did not disappear anywhere, and it soon became clear that what the astronomer mistook for a malfunction in the telescope turned out to be a whole population of cosmic structures in the very heart of the galaxy.

Since then, more than a hundred thinstructures in the center of the Milky Way. Astronomers cannot fully explain what they are, but they nevertheless gave the structures familiar, terrestrial names: pelican, mouse, snake. A menagerie is located around a supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy.

So space bubbles look

Recently, we wrote that supermassivethe black hole in the center of the Milky Way behaves rather strangely. Experts note that despite a recently recorded change in the brightness of the event horizon of a black hole, such objects in other galaxies behave much more actively. The discovered structures, let's call them just bubbles, extend in different directions from the black hole for 1,400 light years. Outwardly, the bubbles resemble two halves of an hourglass, in the center of which is a black hole.

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Where did the giant bubbles come from in the center of the galaxy

Observations obtained with the MeerKAT telescopeSouth African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). Using this tool, during the study, astronomers put together a picture of the center of our galaxy. After the opening of the bubbles, the researchers looked for a special type of radio emission generated in turbulent regions of space - these are areas in which electrons move at a speed close to the speed of light and interact with powerful magnetic fields. This creates radio waves that are capable of illuminating space structures in close proximity. Scientists managed to catch this radiation.

MeerKAT Telescope of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)

Having studied the bubbles that resemble a workspace art, experts have concluded that they are the result of a cataclysm that occurred millions of years ago in a very short period of time. So, one of the possible explanations for the appearance of giant bubbles could be explosions of stars, which filled the environment with a huge amount of energy. It is also possible that the outbreak was a black hole. The fact is that sometimes black holes absorb nearby stellar material too quickly and are eventually forced to get rid of it.

Although the behavior of the black hole inthe center of the Milky Way cannot be called active, astronomers do not exclude that its active phase is already in the past. Regardless of the true cause, the event was so powerful that a surge of energy, which, as the researchers put it, literally broke through the interstellar medium. An ancient explosion inflated bubbles and, as they expanded, excited electrons that interact with magnetic fields and produce radio emission, which scientists have discovered.

What other bubbles are there in space?

It may surprise you, but our heartThe galaxy is home to other bubbles. Bubbles Fermi, named after the great scientist of the 20th century, extend about 25 thousand light years above and below the galactic center. Astronomers discovered them almost ten years ago using a space telescope designed to detect gamma rays. Experts are trying to understand their nature today.

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Team of scientists who worked onresearch, do not exclude that in space there can be much more bubbles. And this means that there are still many puzzles in the form of pelicans or hourglass in the vast Universe. As our telescopes collect data, the picture of outer space next to us will become more and more clear.