APOD: Huge Gamma Ray Bubbles Found Around... (2010 Nov 10)

[APOD Robot]

Huge Gamma Ray Bubbles Found Around Milky Way

Explanation: Did you know that our Milky Way Galaxy has huge bubbles emitting gamma rays from the direction of the galactic center? Neither did anybody. As the data from the Earth-orbiting Fermi satellite began acuminating over the past two years, however, a large and unusual feature toward our Galaxy's center became increasingly evident. The two bubbles are visible together as the red and white spotted oval surrounding the center of the above all sky image, released yesterday. The plane of our Galaxy runs horizontally across the image center. Assuming the bubbles emanate from our Galaxy's center, the scale of the bubbles is huge, rivaling the entire Galaxy in size, and spanning about 50,000 light years from top to bottom. Earlier indications of the bubbles has been found on existing all sky maps in the radio, microwave, and X-ray. The cause of the bubbles is presently unknown, but will likely be researched for years to come.

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[/b]

[neufer]

Accumulate, v. i. [L. accumulatus, p. p. of accumulare; ad + cumulare to heap.] To grow or increase in quantity or number; to increase greatly.
Acuminate, v. i. [L. acuminatus, p. p. of acuminare to sharpen, fr. acumen. See Acumen.] To end in, or come to, a sharp point.

Dubble Bubble

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<<The world’s first bubble gum is Dubble Bubble. It was invented in 1928 by Walter E. Diemer—an accountant at Fleer Company. After his retirement, Diemer admitted that the recipe was discovered by accident. The company founder, Frank Fleer in 1906, attempted to create a chewing gum which he called Blibber Blubber. The resulting product was very sticky and broke easily and was a commercial failure. Mr. Diemer, an accountant who worked at Fleer liked to experiment in his spare time. In doing so, he stumbled upon a gum recipe that was unique. It proved to be less sticky than the initial versions and was easier to chew. This original gum was pink in color because the factory only had pink food coloring available. This is why most bubble gum is pink today. The concoction looked promising so they wrapped one hundred pieces and test marketed it in a local candy store, offering the gum for one cent per piece; the gum sold-out on the first day. The company began marketing the gum as "Dubble Bubble" and sales surpassed $1.5 million in the first year.

The original gum featured a color comic strip, known as the Fleer Funnies, that was included with the gum. The featured characters, ‘Dub and Bub’, were introduced in 1930 but were later replaced by the iconic Pud and his pals in 1950.

During World War II, Dubble Bubble was distributed to the military. Sugar and latex became scarce due to the war and bubble gum manufacturing was halted in 1942. In 1951 Fleer resumed manufacturing of Dubble Bubble and the popularity of its gum grew steadily. Over time, Fleer extended its reach by adding new flavors, new formats like ball gum and expanded distribution of its products overseas.

In 1998, Concord Confections purchased Fleer and along with it the classic icon of American pop culture, the famous "Crown and Oval" Dubble Bubble logo. Overnight the "Dubble Bubble" brand becomes Concord’s prized brand and the new owner expands distribution of the gum to 60 countries worldwide. And in August of 2004, Tootsie Roll acquired Concord Confections to expand its presence in the bubble gum category. Today, the company, through Tootsie continues to grow and expand its reach globally. Dubble Bubble gumballs continue to be a popular favorite among young and old alike.>>

[AbstractThinker]

The bubble(s) look a lot like the lobes on Eta Carina. Could our galaxy have been a quasar or have an active galactic nucleus in the past for a very short period of time? Those bubbles would have to be shown to be moving perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy and at nearly equal speeds to each other and from the center.

[Ann]

These huge bubbles undoubtedly prove that our galaxy has been more active in the past than it is now.

The bubbles remind me of the huge outflows of hydrogen gas from the center of M82:



I don't think that the Milky Way has been as dominated by starburst activity and huge outflows as M 82 is now, but it is worth remembering that M82 is a much smaller galaxy than the Milky Way. Perhaps our galaxy once sported red lobes of hydrogen gas similar to M82.

Ann

[neufer]

This is a composite image made from three satellite observation projects. Visible aspects of the galaxy were taken by the HST. It is also shown in invisible infrared and X-ray spectrums: [b][color=#FF0000]Spitzer photographed it in infrared, which shows dust emission[/color][/b], and [b][color=#0000FF]Chandra photographed it in X-ray (showing mostly synchrotron emissions from fast electrons). The X-ray emission is shown in the blue parts[/color][/b].

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The bubbles remind me of the huge outflows of hydrogen gas from the center of M82:

[neufer]

Huge Gamma Ray Bubbles Found Around Milky Way

Assuming the bubbles emanate from our Galaxy's center, the scale of the bubbles is huge, rivaling the entire Galaxy in size, and spanning about 50,000 light years from top to bottom. Earlier indications of the bubbles has been found on existing all sky maps in the radio, microwave, and X-ray.

Note that earlier indications of the bubbles found on existing all sky maps in the radio, microwave,
and X-ray were attributed to local features like the Loop I Bubble just 100 parsecs away

<<Several supernovae have exploded in Sco-Cen over the past 15 million years, leaving
a network of expanding gas superbubbles around the group, including the Loop I Bubble.>>

[Guest]

I think it makes sense that gamma rays exist around Galactic center if we assume (which from what I understand is very widely assumed) that there is a supermassive black hole near galactic center.

[Khorzho]

Having looked at galaxy pictures in various spectrums for years, my initial thought is that these "bubbles" are our Galaxy's Jets.

Here's NGC 4261's jets.

http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/G/Galactic+Jets

Our core is fairly dormant right now, but we know there are stellar sized bodies orbiting within Light-months from it. Who's to say a large star or stars, now fully absorbed by the SMBH, wasn't accreted into the center and caused jets to form over the past 200,000+ years? Facinating discovery.

[orin stepanek]

Are they found on other galaxies? I would presume they would have them also. Since it is a relative new finding; I would guess that searching other galaxies for bubbles has not been done. Evidently they are not a serious threat to mankind.

[jkierein]

I know that the Compton Gamma Ray Telescope found gammas with the signature wavelength of electron positron annihilation below the galactic plane. Maybe these gammas are just where antimatter exists.

[emc]

Is the peanut shaped bubble gamma ray signature possibly a byproduct of an earlier massive black hole’s energetic consumption of surrounding matter? Are the bubbles a humongous electro-magnetic field?

Cosmic discoveries like this one illustrates how beautiful and wonderfully mysterious our universe is. And that we are discovering there is more to know than what we know... I think that is most important.

Thanks to APOD and the large number of folks that work these mysteries into description, theory or fruition and make their hard work readily available on the internet!

[biddie67]

Hello - do the white areas along the line of our galaxy indicate other gamma ray areas?

And do the 2 white areas underneath the galaxy line towards the right indicate 2 other galaxies in the local group?

[ChipChippington]

APOD items such as today's (Nov 10) are one of the core reasons APOD is my home page. What an interesting discovery and associated physics paper. Great job on this one, APOD team. You have my unwavering appreciation since 1998.

[DélicateFrénésie]

Could this phenomena be related to the relativistic jet seen in APOD June 8 2009?

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090608.html

[alanrt1]

Are these bubbles a result of the black hole at the center. Gamma rays may be the only thing that escapes?

[Ann]

Are these bubbles a result of the black hole at the center. Gamma rays may be the only thing that escapes?

Yes, the bubbles may be the result of the black hole at the center of our galaxy, but if so, the bubbles were created when the black hole had an outburst because matter was falling into it. Right now almost nothing seems to fall into the black hole at the center of our galaxy, and the black hole is therefore "quiet".

The gamma ray bubbles can remain long after the black hole has stopped erupting. A similar phenomen is the famous "Hanny's Voorwerp":

Click to view full size image

This strange green (but really red) hydrogen gas cloud was expelled by the quasar at the center of the large galaxy in the picture. However, the quasar has now "died", and the center of the galaxy is now quiet. But the expelled gas cloud still glows green (really red) with hydrogen emission, because it was ionized by the jet of the quasar before the jet disappeared. So the ionizing source is gone, but the "punch" it packed still affects the gas cloud thousands of light years from the galaxy.

Ann

[bystander]

I think it makes sense that gamma rays exist around Galactic center if we assume (which from what I understand is very widely assumed) that there is a supermassive black hole near galactic center.

Having looked at galaxy pictures in various spectrums for years, my initial thought is that these "bubbles" are our Galaxy's Jets. Our core is fairly dormant right now, but we know there are stellar sized bodies orbiting within Light-months from it. Who's to say a large star or stars, now fully absorbed by the SMBH, wasn't accreted into the center and caused jets to form over the past 200,000+ years? Facinating discovery.

Are they found on other galaxies? I would presume they would have them also.

I know that the Compton Gamma Ray Telescope found gammas with the signature wavelength of electron positron annihilation below the galactic plane. Maybe these gammas are just where antimatter exists.

Is the peanut shaped bubble gamma ray signature possibly a byproduct of an earlier massive black hole’s energetic consumption of surrounding matter? Are the bubbles a humongous electro-magnetic field?

Hello - do the white areas along the line of our galaxy indicate other gamma ray areas? And do the 2 white areas underneath the galaxy line towards the right indicate 2 other galaxies in the local group?

Could this phenomena be related to the relativistic jet seen in APOD June 8 2009?

Are these bubbles a result of the black hole at the center. Gamma rays may be the only thing that escapes?

NASA: Fermi Telescope Finds Giant Structure in our Galaxy
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=21966

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.
...
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.

[emc]

One of these days… I’m going to crank this baby up and then maybe I’ll uncover the gobs of data residing here at SA*!

The fun of seeing your own post amidst the others is sometimes to great a temptation to overcome before reading... Actually, I just need to do a little more looking before posting... Thanks Bystander!

[bystander]

Click to view full size image

... A similar phenomen is the famous "Hanny's Voorwerp":

This strange green (but really red) hydrogen gas cloud was expelled by the quasar at the center of the large galaxy in the picture. However, the quasar has now "died", and the center of the galaxy is now quiet. But the expelled gas cloud still glows green (really red) with hydrogen emission, because it was ionized by the jet of the quasar before the jet disappeared. So the ionizing source is gone, but the "punch" it packed still affects the gas cloud thousands of light years from the galaxy.

I do not think the gas cloud was expelled from the galaxy, but that the "jet" ionized an existing gas cloud.

Yale: Cosmic Curiosity Reveals Ghostly Glow of Dead Quasar
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=21916

[neufer]

Click to view full size image

... A similar phenomen is the famous "Hanny's Voorwerp":

This strange green (but really red) hydrogen gas cloud was expelled by the quasar at the center of the large galaxy in the picture. However, the quasar has now "died", and the center of the galaxy is now quiet. But the expelled gas cloud still glows green (really red) with hydrogen emission, because it was ionized by the jet of the quasar before the jet disappeared. So the ionizing source is gone, but the "punch" it packed still affects the gas cloud thousands of light years from the galaxy.

I do not think the gas cloud was expelled from the galaxy, but that the "jet" ionized an existing gas cloud.

Not only that but the strange green "Hanny's Voorwerp" is actually a blue object redshifted to green.

2D optical spectrum crossing the cloud and IC 2497. William Herschel Telescope

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<<This page is set up to summarize basic data and ongoing study of the curious blue object known as "Hanny's Voorwerp". The "Hanny's Voorwerp" spectrum shows emission lines typical of star-forming regions spread across the object, at a redshift associating it with IC 2497, but shows, in addition, features indicating unusually high temperature and higher ionization than seen in H II regions. I wrote up this description for the GalaxyZoo blog: First, the gas is hot (even by the standards of ionized nebula). The ratio of [O III] lines between 4363 and 4959+5007 is sensitive to temperature. To have the 4363 line even detectable, the gas has to be unusually hot, more like 15-20,000 K. Even odder are some of the other lines. He II is produced when an electron joins a bare helium nucleus, and requires high enough temperature or radiation with enough energy to tear both electrons from helium (four times harder than for hydrogen). We don't see this in star-forming regions. The only stars hot enough to produce He II in surrounding nebulae are the central stars of planetary nebulae (which are the hottest stars known, but only for a few thousand years) and a handful of X-ray-bright stars usually associated with accretion onto black holes or neutron stars. On top of that, at the blue end of the spectrum is [Ne V]. If it's hard to rip two electrons from helium, it's that much harder to pull four from neon. This requires 97 electron volts (eV), compared to 54 to make He II and 13.6 to ionize hydrogen. [Ne V] does sometimes show up in planetary nebulae, but even there calculations suggest that it's not the UV starlight that's responsible, but that high-speed shock waves may be the culprit. This line is also common in the spectra of active galaxies - Seyfert nuclei and their kin, where we know that there are abundant X-rays interacting with the gas.

At this point, we know that the object is rich in highly ionized gas. There is continuum light, especially at the northern tip, but the emission lines are so strong that we can as yet say little about its continuum structure. The high ionization might suggest shock ionization or photoionization by an active galactic nuclei, which would have to be much brighter than any we see in the neighborhood. If the AGN is in IC 2497, it must be highly obscured from our direction but not toward the gas. (It may be significant that the cloud lies near the galaxy's projected minor axis).

Our working hypothesis is that Hanny's Voorwerp consists of dust and gas (maybe from a tidally disrupted dwarf galaxy) which is illuminated by a quasar outburst within IC 2497, an outburst which has faded dramatically within the last 100,000 years.>>

[pgburke]

The "bullbles" are awesome, but also indicate that the galaxy is moving from right to left.
Has NASA or another group used similar emissions from galaxies et al (in the same fashion as asteroids) to estimate the direction of movemnt?

[Astronymus]

First thought: Our galaxie's plasma jets.
Seems many come to the same conclusion.

And it seems to me I see 2 jet pairs. Could our Milky Way have to supermassive black holes circling each other?

[Astronymus]

In addition to the possibility of two SMBHs at the center of the milky way... Two jet pairs would also fit into this radio image of the center of our galaxy: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ ... er_big.jpg / http://rsd-www.nrl.navy.mil/7213/lazio/ ... CD.big.jpg
Position and angle seem to align well.

[DavidLeodis]

The map reminds me of those of plate tectonic faults from which material is being released and is then moving away on both sides of the fault (in this case up and down). It is a fascinating map.

[neufer]

The map reminds me of those of plate tectonic faults from which material is being released and is then moving away on both sides of the fault (in this case up and down). It is a fascinating map.

More of a quadruple bubble actually (but that's not your fault, Dave).

[img3="Fig. 3: Schematic sketches of an underground explosion and a pure strike-slip earthquake. The fault motion is "left-lateral", i.e. counter-clockwise. The arrows show the directions of compressional (outward, +, grey shaded) and dilatational (inward, -, white areas) motions. The patterns shown on the surface indicate the azimuthal variation of observed amplitudes at seismic stations and their polarity."]http://seismo.um.ac.ir/education/Seismi ... s/fig3.gif[/img3]

<<Figure 3 depicts schematically an idealised sub-surface explosion and tectonic earthquake (of pure strike-slip type) in a homogeneous medium. It is obvious that the explosion produces in its initial phase a homogeneous outward directed compressional motion in all directions while the tectonic earthquake produces first motions of different amplitude and polarity in different directions which are again different for longitudinal (P-) and transversal (S-) waves. These characteristics can be used to identify the type of source processes and to discriminate between explosions and tectonic earthquakes. Implosions, e.g. of a karst caves or mining galleries produce a similar "first motion pattern" like an explosion but with opposite sign. Contrary to this, mining induced tectonic rock bursts or tectonic events triggered/induced by high dam reservoir load and pore-pressure changes or by fluid/gas injections into or rapid withdrawal from underground reservoirs may look more similar to tectonic earthquakes. As compared to tectonic earthquakes the duration of the source process of explosions and the so-called rise time to the maximum level of displacement is much shorter (milliseconds as compared to seconds up to a few minutes) and more impulsive. Accordingly, explosions of comparable body wave magnitude excite more high-frequency oscillations (cf. seismic source spectra).

Earthquake Focal Mechanisms (Beach Balls)

Sample Focal Mechanisms: You should memorize the top three, which correspond to dip-slip reverse and normal faulting on a fault dipping 45°, and strike-slip faulting on a vertical fault. The lower two mechanisms correspond to a low-angle reverse earthquake (the dip is low) and the last example is an oblique event with components of both strike-slip and dip-slip movement. The strike of any plane can be read from a focal mechanism by identifying the intersection of the fault (shown as the boundary between shaded and unshaded regions) with the circle surrounding the mechanism (and using the dip-to-the-right rule).

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Focal-Sphere Projection: The intersection between the fault plane and the sphere is a curve. The focal mechanism shows the view of the hemisphere from directly above. We can show the orientation of a plane using just one curve, to include information on the slip, we use two planes and shade opposite quadrants of the hemisphere.

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We use a specific set of symbols to identify faulting geometry on maps. The symbols are called earthquake focal mechanisms or sometimes "seismic beach balls". A focal mechanism is a graphical summary the strike, dip, and slip directions. An earthquake focal mechanism is a projection of the intersection of the fault surface and an imaginary lower hemisphere (we'll use the lower hemisphere, but we could also use the upper hemisphere), surrounding the center of the rupture. The price we pay for the ability to represent slip is that you cannot identify which of the two planes on the focal mechanism is the fault without additional information (such as the location and trend of aftershocks).>>