Mattia Di Mauro

Cosmic rays are charged particles that reach us from distant stellar explosions. But before hitting a detector, they must pass through the bubble of the solar wind. The Sun breathes: it inflates this bubble, then contracts it.

A city at night from above: bright streetlights, glowing windows, car headlights. Astronomers see the center of our Galaxy in much the same way — only not in ordinary light but in gamma rays. And there, among the familiar lights, a strange, uniform glow emerges. It cannot be attributed to any known source. This excess is called the Galactic-center excess (GCE).