An international team of astronomers have discovered radio-emitting structures in the form of bubbles that extend on either side of the plane of the Milky Way. Researchers believe that these celestial bodies were left after a burst of activity from the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A *. This is reported by Science Alert.
Scientists observed unknown objects in the center of the galaxy with the MeerKAT radio telescope (South Africa), which consists of 64 interconnected antennas. Bubbles emitting synchrotron radio emission enclose long (tens of light years) and thin (one light year thick) regions of gas. Researchers have counted only about a hundred of these strands, which together form an hourglass-like symmetrical structure 1.4 thousand light years long.
The upper age limit for filaments surrounded by radio bubbles reaches several million years. The shape and symmetry of the entire structure indicates that it is generated by the activity of a giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Sagittarius A * spewed out a huge amount of matter, accelerating it to the speed of light and forming shock waves passing through the central regions of the galaxy. The activity of the black hole, in turn, is associated with the absorption of large volumes of interstellar gas.
The detected radio bubbles are smaller and emit less energy than Fermi bubbles - giant formations 50,000 light-years across, which are also located on either side of the plane of the Milky Way. At the same time, scientists believe that both of these structures could appear as a result of the same processes.