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Fermi Discovers Giant Gamma-ray Bubbles

Magenta bubbles extend above and below a flat, clumpy Milky Way. The Milky Way is seen as a flat disk, with clouds of material lit from behind by bright stars and gas. This plane stretches almost the width of the image. Two magenta circles dominate the image, each resting at the center of the Milky Way’s plane, one above and one below.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Published: November 9, 2010

Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, scientists discovered a gigantic, mysterious structure in our galaxy. This feature looks like a pair of bubbles extending above and below our galaxy's center. Each lobe is 25,000 light-years tall and the whole structure may be only a few million years old.

More information: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10688

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