Huge "structures" found in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, say scientists

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According to scientists, huge "balloon shaped structures" have been spotted in the middle of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

The pair of huge bubbles – which span hundreds of light-years – emit radio signals and are among the greatest features ever found in the center of our galaxy.

They are so huge that they have eliminated all the other radio structures around the center of our galactic district.

They were probably born after a huge explosion of energy that exploded near the supermassive black hole floating in the center of the Milky Way, researchers said.

"The center of our galaxy is relatively quiet compared to other galaxies with very active central black holes," said Ian Heywood of Oxford University, lead author of an article. in the journal Nature describing the discovery.

"Even so, the central black hole of the Milky Way can occasionally become unusually active, dilating as it periodically devours clusters of dust and gas." It's possible that such a frenzy food has triggered powerful explosions that have inflated this unique feature. "

The vast structure was spotted by the MeerKAT telescope, the South African Radioastronomy Observer (SARAO), which Professor Heywood and his team used to map areas in the middle of our galaxy. They did it by researching radio broadcasts at a very specific wavelength – they can be used to find particularly energetic areas in space, looking through the dense clouds that prevent us from seeing the middle of the galaxy while searching for light.

Associated slide show: Spectacular images of space (provided by photo services)

Using these techniques to examine the huge bubbles, examining their size and shape and finding that they looked almost identical, the researchers were able to find evidence that they suggested they had been trained in an intense eruption. This seems to be happening over a short period of time, but was so extreme that he went through the issue of space.

"The shape and symmetry of what we have observed strongly suggests that an event of staggering power occurred a few million years ago very near the central black hole of our galaxy, "said William Cotton, astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, co-author on the paper.

"This eruption was probably caused by large amounts of interstellar gas falling into the black hole, or by a massive burst of star formation that sent shockwaves through the galactic center. inflated in the hot ionized gas near the center galaxy, energizing it and generating radio waves that we could possibly detect here on Earth. "

The space around the black hole of our galaxy is very different from that of the Milky Way, much more turbulent and active than any other part of the galaxy. It's also largely mysterious because it can be so hard to see – there are huge, long, narrow filaments that have not been spotted elsewhere and that researchers still do not understand. .

The new structures could help illuminate these filaments. Both could have been formed by the same mysterious energy event.

"The radio bubbles discovered by MeerKAT are now shedding light on the origin of the filaments," said Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and co-author of the newspaper. "Almost all the more than one hundred filaments are confined by radio bubbles."

Until now, it was not possible to see the structures as they were hidden behind light signals coming from the middle of the galaxy. Scientists have been able to use new techniques to examine these dazzling emissions and discover the imposing new formations.

"These huge bubbles were hitherto masked by the light of an extremely bright radio broadcast from the center of the galaxy," said Fernando Camilo of SARAO, Cape Town, and co-author of the newspaper.

"Teasing bubbles from the background noise was a technical feat, made possible only by the unique characteristics of MeerKAT and by its ideal location – energy, ultimately governed by the central black hole".

The new research is published today in Nature and is written by authors from 15 different institutions. This is the first document to detail the research of the full range of MeerKAT since its launch last year.