The unexpected discovery suggests a colossal event in our galaxy's past, releasing energy equivalent to 100,000 exploding stars. But scientists don't yet know what that event might have been.

Startled astronomers said Tuesday they had discovered two massive bubbles of gamma-ray energy extending 25,000 light-years above and below the plane of the Milky Way galaxy like a squat hourglass.

Please read more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-1110-energy-bubbles-20101110,0,5062292.story


This NASA illustration depicts the twin bubbles of high-energy gamma rays protruding from the Milky Way, which are believed to be nearly as big as the galaxy itself. (NASA / November 9, 2010)

Only two words:
Fascinating
Amazing.
Thanks for sharing.

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Only two words:
Fascinating
Amazing.
Thanks for sharing.

Wow indeed!

Another possibility not covered by the article is that the 'bubbles' might be a present day 'illumination' effect from ongoing activity from or near the black hole at the centre of our galaxy. A galactic 'heliosheath' even?!


Keep searchin',
Martin

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Wow! Is right. Your all welcome.

This is a NASA link.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/new-structure.html
NASA's Fermi Telescope Finds Giant Structure in our Galaxy


A giant gamma-ray structure was discovered by processing Fermi all-sky data at energies from 1 to 10 billion electron volts, shown here. The dumbbell-shaped feature (center) emerges from the galactic center and extends 50 degrees north and south from the plane of the Milky Way, spanning the sky from the constellation Virgo to the constellation Grus. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT/D. Finkbeiner et al.

Interesting:

NASA Announces Televised Chandra News Conference

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 15, to discuss the Chandra X-ray Observatory's discovery of an exceptional object in our cosmic neighborhood. [...]

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/nov/HQ_M10-157_Chandra_Update.html

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Mens sana in corpore ETI & Maze

since we see jets of gamma rays being emitted from other galaxies "blackholes" why wouldnt we see one from our own

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

The object observed by Chandra is supernova 1979C, whose X-ray emission was discovered in 1995 by Chandra. It is possibly a young black hole or a pulsar, and its interest lies in the fact that we know its birthday, so we can watch its evolution and test the various models put forward to explain it. It would be very interesting to know if it is a binary system, perhaps emitting gravitational waves. It is not very far, in galaxy M101.
Tullio

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