Fermi bubbles tagged posts

Gamma rays from Neighboring Galaxy related to Millisecond Pulsars

Sagittarius Dwarf
A small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way – called the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy – has been observed from Earth through giant lobes of gamma radiation (the so-called Fermi bubbles). Although the dwarf galaxy is stuffed with dark matter, this is unlikely to be the cause of the observed emission. Image: O. Macias.

A team of researchers, including UvA physicists and astronomers, has studied gamma rays caused by the Sagittarius Dwarf, a small neighbouring galaxy of our Milky Way. They showed that all the observed gamma radiation can be explained by millisecond pulsars, and can therefore not be interpreted as a smoking gun signature for the presence of dark matter. The results were published in Nature Astronomy this week.

The center of our galaxy is blowing a pair of colossal bubbles ...

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Swarm of Hydrogen Clouds flying away from center of the Milky Way

GBT reveals hydrogen clouds flying out of the Milky Way in the Fermi Bubbles. Credit: Illustration and Design: V. Vosteen; Photo: S. Brunier (GBO/AUI/NSF)

GBT reveals hydrogen clouds flying out of the Milky Way in the Fermi Bubbles. Credit: Illustration and Design: V. Vosteen; Photo: S. Brunier (GBO/AUI/NSF)

A team has discovered what appears to be a grand exodus of >100 hydrogen clouds streaming away from the center of the Milky Way and heading into intergalactic space. This observation, made with the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT), may give astronomers a clearer picture of the so-called Fermi Bubbles, giant balloons of superheated gas billowing out above and below the disk of our galaxy.

“The center of the Milky Way is a special place,” notes Jay Lockman, an astronomer at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia...

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