We were able to see a whole new Universe of high-energy radiation when the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope entered low- Earth's orbit in 2008.
One of its curiosities was the giant, symmetrical blobs stretching above and below the galactic plane, 25,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way.
In 2020, an X-ray telescope named eROSITA found even bigger bubbles extending over 45,000 light-years on each side of the galactic plane.
The scientists have concluded that the bubbles are probably the result of an event from the center of the universe. It has been difficult to pin down the source of the radiation.
A physicist from Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan has come up with a single explanation for the two sets of bubbles.
He has found that the X-ray emission is the result of a powerful, fast- moving wind that slams into the tenuous gas filling the space between the stars.
As far as black holes go, Sagittarius A* is quiet. Its feeding activity is very low. It has been that way before. An active black hole can have a variety of effects.
The material goes towards the black hole and catches fire. Magnetic field lines outside of a black hole accelerate particles to near-light speed. These are launched as powerful jets of ionized plasma from the black hole's poles, punching out into space for up to millions of light years.
Cosmic winds are streams of charged particles that are whipped up by the black hole that blast out into space
Sagittarius A* has not always been quiet. There are relics of past activity in the space around the plane. We can understand when and how activity took place by studying the relics.
The data from the now-retired Suzaku X-ray satellite was used by Fujita to get into the bubbles. He used observations of the X-ray structures associated with the bubbles and simulations to try to reproduce them.
The density, temperature, and shock age of the X-ray gas can be used to distinguish the energy injection mechanisms.
The bubbles were created by a fast wind from the center of the universe because it generated a strong reverse shock and reproduced the observed temperature peak there.
He found that the most likely scenario was a black hole wind blowing at a speed of 1,000 kilometers per second, from a past feeding event that was metered out over the course of 10 million years. A shock wave bounces back into the bubble after the charged particles collide. The material in the bubbles glows because of the reverse shock waves.
The temperature profile of the X-ray structure was accurately reproduced.
The possibility of a single explosion from the center of the universe was investigated, but he was not able to reproduce the bubbles. It is believed that the most likely progenitor of the structures was a slow, steady wind from the center of the universe. Sagittarius A* is one of the causes of the power of the wind.
He writes in his paper that the wind may be similar to the active galactic nuclei outflows that are seen in other galaxies.
The paper has been published.
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