A study from Japan has unveiled the solution to one of the most enigmatic and mysterious structures ever discovered: The giant Fermi bubbles emanating from the center of the galaxy that contains Earth.
First identified by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in 2010, these Fermi bubbles have remained a significant mystery for astronomers for over a decade, as this was the first time such a structure was observed.
Massive and eerie, the Fermi bubbles are symmetrical across the galactic plane, as if they are blowing out from both sides of the galaxy’s center, where the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* resides.
Fermi Bubbles (green).
The research team, led by Professor Yutaka Fujita from Tokyo Metropolitan University, presented new evidence based on a model that he and his colleagues recreated of the Milky Way galaxy.
According to SciTech Daily, scientists discovered a pair of phenomena: “forward shock” and “reverse shock,” with the reverse shock being responsible for inflating the mysterious bubbles.
Specifically, everything originates from the fast winds expelled by the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. The galactic winds are not gentle breezes like those on Earth, but rather a storm of energy erupting into the surrounding space at a speed of 1,000 km/s.
These winds, carrying charged particles, “bombard” the surrounding space, causing a shock to the gas halo surrounding the galaxy. This rapid, strong, and intense collision creates the reverse shock, leading to an extraordinary environment with significant temperature and energy differences. And that is the shell of the Fermi bubbles.
Simulations indicate that this process also occurs in other galaxies; it is just that our telescopes are not yet capable of “seeing” them.
The study was recently published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
