Ghostly Neutrinos Illuminate the Milky Way's Bubbles ⚡ экспресс
The Fermi Bubbles are a colossal bipolar outflow from the Galactic center, packing ~10⁵⁶ erg of energy and driving shock waves up to ~10 kpc from the disk. These shocks are expected to generate a neutrino flux above 10 TeV. By cross-correlating 12 years of IceCube HESE data with Fermi-LAT all-sky maps, researchers found a >3σ signal from outside the Galactic plane. Adding eROSITA's X-ray view to trace the shock-heated shells, a neutrino glow emerged from both bubbles at high latitudes (|b|>30°, >4σ), with a striking local peak (>5σ) in the brighter eastern edges. The signal aligns beautifully with the prediction for relativistic ions, suggesting about 10⁵⁴·⁵ erg (uncertainty factor ~3) of cosmic rays per bubble, whipped up to >PeV energies. This confirms a ~10% acceleration efficiency and the raw power of the shock fronts. Intriguingly, early hints also point to neutrinos from the even larger eROSITA bubbles, which envelop the Fermi Bubbles and exhibit comparable energies and shock structures.
Millions of years ago, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way hurled out scorching gas, inflating two colossal bubbles. Their edges are shock waves that compress matter. The IceCube detector, frozen into the Antarctic ice, has for the first time caught neutrinos from these walls. Neutrinos are ghostly particles that barely interact with matter. In the bubble walls, shock waves accelerate protons to enormous energies; colliding with gas, they spawn neutrinos that travel to Earth, passing through the Galaxy almost unhindered. This proves that the bubbles are natural particle accelerators and reveals the black hole's stormy past. The outburst that created them was a million times brighter than a supernova. If we could see gamma rays, these bubbles would shine in the night sky brighter than a hundred full Moons.
🎯 Neutrinos are so elusive that billions of them stream through your body every second, yet only a few will ever interact with you in your lifetime.
🎬 Neutrinos in Arthur C. Clarke's novel '2010: Odyssey Two' foreshadowed a catastrophe on Jupiter, while the real particles told us about an explosion in the heart of the Milky Way.