May 19, 2020

Gamma-ray and X-ray observations of the center of the Milky Way

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal” offers an explanation of the origin of the so-called Fermi bubbles, the two gigantic gas bubbles existing above and below the center of the Milky Way. Guo Fulai and Zhang Ruiyu of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a series of simulations that allowed to create a model that explains the origin of the Fermi bubbles and at the same time of the biconical X-ray structure at the center of the galaxy. According to the new model, the two phenomena are caused by shock waves generated by two jets from Sagittarius A*, or simply Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, around 5 million years ago.