The discussion revolves around the recent release of gamma-ray images from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, focusing on the implications of these findings for understanding the Milky Way galaxy, particularly regarding the existence of a supermassive black hole and the newly discovered gamma-ray-emitting structures.
Participants express a mix of excitement and skepticism regarding the implications of the Fermi Telescope's findings. There is no consensus on the interpretation of the data, particularly regarding the existence and nature of the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center.
The discussion includes various assumptions about the existence of a supermassive black hole and the interpretation of gamma-ray emissions, which are not universally accepted. The implications of the newly discovered structures are still under investigation, and participants acknowledge the complexity of the gamma-ray data.
This discussion may be of interest to those studying astrophysics, particularly in the areas of gamma-ray astronomy, black hole research, and the structure of the Milky Way galaxy.
NASA researchers yesterday released images collected by a new telescope studying high-energy gamma rays. A combined image from 95 hours of the telescope's initial observations showed bursts of gamma rays glowing across the plane of the Milky Way.
The Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope, renamed Fermi, was launched in June and is off to a promising start, NASA scientists said.
We haven't proven the existence of a super-massive black hole's (SMBH) anywhere yet, however, we have excellent evidence that there is a SMBH at the center of our galaxy. Mainly, we've been observing stars orbiting the SMBH for years that have orbits roughly the diameter of our solar system. Through an elementary analysis of their orbits we know that there is either a point mass or spherical mass that is millions of times the mass of our own sun which can only be a BH. If it's not a BH it's a very very very dense state of exotic matter that is completely unexplainable by physics (it would pretty exciting if that were the case, but unlikely).blimkie.k said:Im wondering if Fermi will help astronomers further proove or disproove this theory or even present new theories.
Im interested in more information on Fermi and this subject if anyone has some good links besides NASA page because I've allreayd been there. What exactly are the long term goals of this project, if any?
Gamma ray energies are in the 1 to several hundred GeV range.WASHINGTON -- 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.
"What we see are two gamma-ray-emitting bubbles that extend 25,000 light-years north and south of the galactic center," said Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., who first recognized the feature. "We don't fully understand their nature or origin."
The structure spans more than half of the visible sky, from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Grus, and it may be millions of years old. A paper about the findings has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
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Other astronomers studying gamma rays hadn't detected the bubbles partly because of a fog of gamma rays that appears throughout the sky. The fog happens when particles moving near the speed of light interact with light and interstellar gas in the Milky Way. The LAT team constantly refines models to uncover new gamma-ray sources obscured by this so-called diffuse emission. By using various estimates of the fog, Finkbeiner and his colleagues were able to isolate it from the LAT data and unveil the giant bubbles.
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