NASA's Fermi Telescope Finds Giant Structure in our Galaxy.
57 replies, posted
[img]http://is2.snstatic.fi/iltasanomat/iDoc/2275502-2275502-1-1289509532.jpg[/img]
[quote=NASA]WASHINGTON -- NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has unveiled a previously unseen structure centered in the Milky Way. The feature spans 50,000 light-years and may be the remnant of an eruption from a supersized black hole at the center of our galaxy.
"What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. "We don't fully understand their nature or origin."
The structure spans more than half of the visible sky, from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Grus, and it may be millions of years old. A paper about the findings has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
Finkbeiner and his team discovered the bubbles by processing publicly available data from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT). The LAT is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray detector ever launched. Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of light.
Other astronomers studying gamma rays hadn't detected the bubbles partly because of a fog of gamma rays that appears throughout the sky. The fog happens when particles moving near the speed of light interact with light and interstellar gas in the Milky Way. The LAT team constantly refines models to uncover new gamma-ray sources obscured by this so-called diffuse emission. By using various estimates of the fog, Finkbeiner and his colleagues were able to isolate it from the LAT data and unveil the giant bubbles.
Scientists now are conducting more analyses to better understand how the never-before-seen structure was formed. The bubble emissions are much more energetic than the gamma-ray fog seen elsewhere in the Milky Way. The bubbles also appear to have well-defined edges. The structure's shape and emissions suggest it was formed as a result of a large and relatively rapid energy release - the source of which remains a mystery.
One possibility includes a particle jet from the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. In many other galaxies, astronomers see fast particle jets powered by matter falling toward a central black hole. While there is no evidence the Milky Way's black hole has such a jet today, it may have in the past. The bubbles also may have formed as a result of gas outflows from a burst of star formation, perhaps the one that produced many massive star clusters in the Milky Way's center several million years ago.
"In other galaxies, we see that starbursts can drive enormous gas outflows," said David Spergel, a scientist at Princeton University in New Jersey. "Whatever the energy source behind these huge bubbles may be, it is connected to many deep questions in astrophysics."
Hints of the bubbles appear in earlier spacecraft data. X-ray observations from the German-led Roentgen Satellite suggested subtle evidence for bubble edges close to the galactic center, or in the same orientation as the Milky Way. NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe detected an excess of radio signals at the position of the gamma-ray bubbles.
The Fermi LAT team also revealed Tuesday the instrument's best picture of the gamma-ray sky, the result of two years of data collection.
"Fermi scans the entire sky every three hours, and as the mission continues and our exposure deepens, we see the extreme universe in progressively greater detail," said Julie McEnery, Fermi project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
NASA's Fermi is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
"Since its launch in June 2008, Fermi repeatedly has proven itself to be a frontier facility, giving us new insights ranging from the nature of space-time to the first observations of a gamma-ray nova," said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These latest discoveries continue to demonstrate Fermi's outstanding performance.”
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More images, source info and video:
[url]http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/new-structure.html[/url]
I thought it meant a man made structure. Meh.
Like a spacehouse made by aliens or something.
Whoa, cool.
:science:
I'd assume it's due to the supermassive black hole.
I instantly thought of the Geth superstructure
God damnit stop using such an appealing thread title you douche-bag :frown:
I too thought it was a structure, like a building.
Oh well, still looks awesome
Looks like our galaxy has cancer..
Giant structure... :buddy:
...comprising of two radiation bubbles.
[QUOTE=Nat562;25982165]Looks like our galaxy has cancer..[/QUOTE]
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGLP80-FaKs[/media]
That type?
I wonder if we've found things like this in other galaxies. If not, this is even cooler.
This was also known long ago, if I remembered it right. Supermassive black holes shoot out giant gas streams out from them as stuff rotate around it, like this:
[img]http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/08/supermassive_black_hole_2.jpg[/img]
So it wouldn't surprise me if it shoots out shitloads of radiation
still cool though
is it made of woodscrews
Did anyone else right click+view image to see that picture in a higher resolution.
Man I was hoping for something alien related. :|
I was hoping it'd found some massive abandoned space station, like the sleeper stations in Eve.
That'd make my day, but creep me out because that means there are rampant, sentient robots in space... just waiting for us to make a mistake. :tinfoil:
[QUOTE=Chezhead;25981136]I thought it meant a man made structure. Meh.
Like a spacehouse made by aliens or something.[/QUOTE]
i think if it were artificial it would be on the front page of the newspapers and all over the news
Well don't black holes suck in mass and turn them into energy? Maybe this consistent, quick release of energy is all of the matter that was sucked in being converted to energy.
Massively amazing.
[QUOTE=agnl;25982412]Well don't black holes suck in mass and turn them into energy? Maybe this consistent, quick release of energy is all of the matter that was sucked in being converted to energy.[/QUOTE]
In before aVoN.
Just sayin'
[QUOTE=Haxxer;25982219]This was also known long ago, if I remembered it right. Supermassive black holes shoot out giant gas streams out from them as stuff rotate around it, like this:
[img_thumb]http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/08/supermassive_black_hole_2.jpg[/img_thumb]
So it wouldn't surprise me if it shoots out shitloads of radioation[/QUOTE]
Well, the article said [I]"gamma ray emitting bubbles"[/I], so...
[QUOTE=agnl;25982412]Well don't black holes suck in mass and turn them into energy? Maybe this consistent, quick release of energy is all of the matter that was sucked in being converted to energy.[/QUOTE]
It's actually matter that was superheated to the point of giving off massive amounts of gamma/x-ray radiation, then getting ejected at the polar north and south ends of the black hole.
Black holes are known as "messy eaters" since the vast majority of matter being sucked into it isn't consumed (which wouldn't produce any radiation) but rather ejected. You see due to angular momentum, matter would start circling the black hole (like how water would circle a drain) and would thus cause friction. Due to the extreme density of black holes, this friction and potential energy towards the inner regions would become so high that the matter would get superheated to the point of giving off massive amounts of radiation.
This way of creating energy is actually amongst the most efficient in the known universe; up to 40% of the energy from the matter being pulled in is converted to energy, compared to 0.7% for nuclear fusion.
First thing i thought of was a mental picture of Halo.
I am disappointed and relieved.
A telescope powered by Fermi?
[img]http://www.hardwaresphere.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/nvidia-fermi-geforce-gtx-480-graphic-card.jpg[/img]
???
I was reading slashdot and someone was commenting pointing out that essentially these blobs of gamma radiation were found when trying to extrapolate data from static. so, from what I gather, this could very well just be an interpretation-gone-wrong.
As soon as I read the thread title I immediately thought of
[img]http://wireninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/MassEffect_Reference.png[/img]
But this is also a fascinating find.
[QUOTE=Haxxer;25982219]This was also known long ago, if I remembered it right. Supermassive black holes shoot out giant gas streams out from them as stuff rotate around it, like this:
[img_thumb]http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/08/supermassive_black_hole_2.jpg[/img_thumb]
So it wouldn't surprise me if it shoots out shitloads of radioation[/QUOTE]
Wow, I don't know why but I find that fucking terrifying.
[editline]11th November 2010[/editline]
[QUOTE=Pr0vologne;25988458]As soon as I read the thread title I immediately thought of
[img_thumb]http://wireninja.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/MassEffect_Reference.png[/img_thumb]
But this is also a fascinating find.[/QUOTE]
Same here, I was thinking giant space station.
[QUOTE=SpaceNews]Finkbeiner[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Haxxer;25982134]I instantly thought of the Geth superstructure
God damnit stop using such an appealing thread title you douche-bag :frown:[/QUOTE]
Don't blame me, it's NASA's own headline, I'm just here to feed the pasta.
Besides, the structure would have had to been larger than Earth for us to find it with current tech. :P
[QUOTE=Haxxer;25982219]This was also known long ago, if I remembered it right. Supermassive black holes shoot out giant gas streams out from them as stuff rotate around it, like this:
[img_thumb]http://www.dailygalaxy.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/01/08/supermassive_black_hole_2.jpg[/img_thumb]
So it wouldn't surprise me if it shoots out shitloads of radioation[/QUOTE]Relativistic jets are fucking awesome. I would love to one day be able to see one from the window of a spacecraft.
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