Ice in a Million-Degree Fermi Bubble Reveals the Milky Way’s Recent Eruption

Ice in a million-degree Fermi bubble reveals the Milky Way’s recent eruption

Astronomers using the Green Bank Telescope spotted surprisingly cold, dense hydrogen clouds embedded inside the Milky Way’s vast, super-hot Fermi bubbles—structures thought to be created by a recent, violent outburst from the galaxy’s core. Because such chilled gas should evaporate quickly in million-degree surroundings, its survival hints that the bubbles are only about a million years old. Ultraviolet data from Hubble backs the discovery, and …

Astronomers discovered Fermi bubbles hiding at the center of the Milky Way

Deep within the Milky Way’s core, researchers have uncovered cold gas clouds racing through a superheated galactic wind. These clouds sit high above the plane of the galaxy, deep inside enormous plasma structures known as Fermi bubbles. The finding challenges older ideas about how these bubbles formed and how long they’ve existed. The Fermi bubbles rise above and below the center of the Milky Way. They stretch across 50,000 light-years—about hal…