Podcast: 60 second science: Milky Way blowing bubbles

The Milky Way has been seen blowing a pair of giant gamma-ray bubbles.

Measuring 50,000 light-years across and towering above our galaxy, it’s thought the bubbles may have been formed 100,000 years ago by jets of matter created when 100 suns’ worth of material fell into the black hole at the centre of our galaxy.

Researchers led by Professor Doug Finkbeiner at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics identified the bubbles using the latest maps from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

According to Professor Finkbeiner more research is needed, as “we don’t fully understand their nature or origin”.