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The mystery of the Milky Way’s huge bubble Tsinghua: from the black hole energy eruption
(Central News Agency reporter Lu Gangjun, Hsinchu City on the 24th) Assistant Professor Yang Xiangyi of the Institute of Astronomy of National Tsing Hua University and an international team used computer simulations to confirm that astronomers observed two sets of huge bubbles in the Milky Way in the past, which were produced by the eruption of supermassive black hole energy 2.6 million years ago .
Yang Xiangyi said through a press release issued by the school today that international astronomers used the Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope in 2010 to discover that there are two huge bubbles in the center of the Milky Way, symmetrical up and down with the disk of the Milky Way as the center, named Fermi bubbles Bubble.
Yang Xiangyi said that at that time, the astronomical community was arguing about the formation of Fermi bubbles. One group believed that it was caused by the energy eruption of the black hole, while the other group claimed that it was the galactic wind generated by the supernova explosion.
Yang Xiangyi pointed out that in 2019, astronomers launched another X-ray Telescope (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array), and soon observed two similar Fermi bubbles, but larger and symmetrical. Bubbles are called eRosita bubbles.
Yang Xiangyi said that she cooperated with an international team to input the latest Yirosita telescope observation data into the computer for hydrodynamic simulation, and found that it was consistent with the gas temperature and density changes of the black hole jet, confirming that the Fermi bubble and the Yirosita bubble are the same. Caused by the black hole jet event, the inner circle of the ejected bubble is gamma rays emitted by high-energy particles ejected by the black hole, and the outer circle is X-rays released by gas shock waves.
Yang Xiangyi explained that when the black hole at the center of the Milky Way absorbs matter of 10,000 to 100,000 times the mass of the sun, only a small part is actually eaten into the area where even light cannot escape, and most of the matter will still be spit out and interact with the magnetic field. The outflow jets at close to the speed of light push out the gas of the Milky Way, forming huge bubbles.
Yang Xiangyi said that the high-energy particles and shock waves that formed these two sets of huge bubbles are still expanding outwards at a super-high speed of 1,500 kilometers per second, and are gradually coming towards our solar system, but it will take millions of years to arrive. Earth, don’t worry for now.
Tsinghua University said that a multinational research team composed of astronomers from Tsinghua and the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin has uncovered the mystery of the origin of the Milky Way’s giant bubble. This major astronomical research achievement It has also been listed in the top international journal Nature Astronomy. (Editor: Fang Peiqing) 1110324