Stellar explosions puff up giant gamma-ray bubbles express

Original: "Fermi Bubbles Without AGN: Gamma-Ray Bubbles in MHD Galaxy Formation Simulations with Full Cosmic Ray Spectra"
arXiv:2510.14908 · 2025-10-16 · CC BY 4.0 · 1 min
It’s not a black hole, but countless star explosions, like a giant cauldron boiling.

At the center of the Milky Way, a giant stellar cauldron boils. Massive stars are born and die there: each death is a supernova explosion, hurling clouds of charged particles into space. These particles, accelerated to nearly the speed of light, collide with gas and radiation, emitting gamma-ray light — the most energetic in nature. Thus, above the plane of the galaxy, two bubbles tens of thousands of light-years tall are puffed up, like steam bubbles above boiling water. The Fermi telescope spotted them back in 2010, but only now has a computer model shown that the black hole has nothing to do with it. The vigorous life of ordinary stars is enough. Moreover, different parts of the bubbles glow in their own way: it depends on how particles lose energy. This gamma-ray “rainbow” is called a spectrum. The biggest surprise: the bubbles are not hot gas, but the glow of particles accelerated to nearly light speed. And the simulation also predicted: wherever there is gamma-ray glow, there should be radio waves and X-rays as well. Now astronomers know where to point their telescopes.

Contrary to intuition, the bubbles’ light isn’t born from heat, but from particles flying almost at light speed.

Scientists
Bernhard RiemannJoseph WeberKarl SchwarzschildKip ThorneRainer WeissAlbert Einstein
Concepts
bubble early universe star formation star formation gas galactic outflow cosmic bubble nucleation active galactic nucleus red dots fermi telescope gamma ray starburst gamma-ray burst stellar feedback spiral galaxy radio galaxy Mössbauer effect supernova 1987a stellar nursery afterglow dark matter deficient dwarf galaxies free-floating planet ultra high energy gamma ray