Extremely Powerful Gamma-Rays Detected Coming From Unknown Source at the Center of the Milky Way

Amaze Lab

At the heart of our Galaxy lies a supermassive black hole and while it’s relatively quiet for something of its size and insatiability- Astronomers have captured some extreme gamma rays coming from the area around it, some of the most powerful ever.

Transcript

00:00At the heart of our galaxy lies a supermassive black hole, and while it's relatively quiet

00:08for something of its size and insatiability, astronomers have captured some extreme gamma

00:12rays coming from the area around it, some of the most powerful ever.

00:17Over the past seven years, researchers at the high-altitude Water Cherenkov Observatory

00:21in Mexico have detected some 98 gamma ray events.

00:24Some of those had energy levels which exceeded 100 tera electron volts.

00:29They say this confirms a pavetron source of ultra-high energy gamma rays at a location

00:33in the Milky Way known as the Galactic Center Ridge, which they add means that our galactic

00:38center is home to some of the most extreme physical processes in the universe.

00:43Pavetrons are wild, as they are the summation of charged protons and atomic nuclei whipping

00:47through the cosmos at around the speed of light, interacting with particle accelerators,

00:51which could be something like the magnetic field around a supermassive black hole.

00:55Experts say this is a surprising find in our galaxy, but they have identified the source

00:59which they have now named HAWC J1746-2856.

01:04However they add, they have no idea what it is.

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