Giant Magnetized Outflows from the Centre of the Milky Way

Abstract

The nucleus of the Milky Way is known to harbour regions of intense star formation activity as well as a super-massive black hole. Recent Fermi space telescope observations have revealed regions of γ-ray emission reaching far above and below the Galactic Centre, the so-called Fermi bubbles. It is uncertain whether these were generated by nuclear star formation or by quasar-like outbursts of the central black hole and no information on the structures' magnetic field has been reported. Here we report on the detection of two giant, linearly-polarized radio Lobes, containing three ridge-like sub-structures, emanating from the Galactic Centre. The Lobes each extend ~60 deg, bear a close correspondence to the Fermi bubbles, are located in the Galactic bulge, and are permeated by strong magnetic fields of up to 15 μG. Our data signal that the radio Lobes originate in a bi-conical, star-formation (rather than black hole) driven outflow from the Galaxy's central 200 pc that transports a massive magnetic energy of ~10^55 erg into the Galactic halo. The ridges wind around this outflow and, we suggest, constitute a `phonographic' record of nuclear star formation activity over at least 10 Myr.

Published in Nature, main article. 20 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (75)

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• The 1.28 GHz MeerKAT Galactic Center Mosaic
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• Fermi Bubbles Inflated by Winds Launched from the Hot Accretion Flow in Sgr A*
• Polarised radio filaments outside the Galactic plane
• Magnetic Fields in the Milky Way
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• The Coherent Magnetic Field of the Milky Way
• Spatial variations in the spectral index of polarized synchrotron emission in the 9 yr WMAP sky maps
• Fermi and eRosita bubbles as relics of the past activity of the Galactic black hole
• The large-scale ionization cones in the Galaxy
• A radio-polarisation and rotation measure study of the Gum Nebula and its environment
• Tentative Evidence for Relativistic Electrons Generated by the Jet of the Young Sun-like Star DG Tau
• Galactic interstellar turbulence in the southern sky seen through spatial gradients of the polarization vector
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• S-PASS/ATCA: a window on the magnetic universe in the southern hemisphere
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• On the distance to the North Polar Spur and the local CO-H2 factor
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• Discovery of High-Velocity H$\alpha$ Emission in the Direction of the Fermi Bubble
• A CO Funnel in the Galactic Centre: Molecular Counterpart of the Northern Galactic Chimney?
• The Fossil Nuclear Outflow in the Central 30 pc of the Galactic Center
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• Fermi bubbles: the collimated outburst needed to explain forward-shock edges
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• Faraday moments of the Southern Twenty-centimeter All-sky Polarization Survey (STAPS)
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• The Galactic Center compared with nuclei of nearby galaxies
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• Probing magnetic fields with Square Kilometre array and its precursors
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• A possible origin of gamma rays from the Fermi Bubbles
• Cosmic-ray electrons and the magnetic field of the North Polar Spur
• A New High-latitude H I Cloud Complex Entrained in the Northern Fermi Bubble
• Possible counterpart signal of the Fermi bubbles at the cosmic-ray positrons
• Evidence for powerful winds and the associated reverse shock as the origin of the Fermi bubbles
• The imprint of magnetic fields on absorption spectra from circumgalactic wind-cloud systems
• Detection of polarized Fermi-bubble synchrotron and dust emission
• Diffuse Hot Plasma in the Interstellar Medium and Galactic Outflows
• The role of magnetic fields in shaping $\gamma$-ray emission from the Fermi bubbles
• Diffuse continuum emission and large extended sources at MeV energies
• On the high-energy protons regular acceleration in the Fermi Bubbles