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Something weird is happening in our galaxy - Ashkbiz Danehkar

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In 2010, NASA announced the discovery of a never-before-seen galactic object: two gigantic gaseous bubbles, each emanating an impressive 25,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way. Astronomers were perplexed: what created these structures? And could this mean that the black hole at the center of our galaxy was waking up? Ashkbiz Danehkar explores the possible origins of the Fermi bubbles.

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The Fermi Bubbles are two giant gamma-ray emitting bubbles over our Milky Way galaxy. These structures were discovered using the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, which is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray detector launched by NASA in 2008. The eROSITA Bubbles are two giant soft X-ray bubbles encapsulating the Fermi Bubbles, which were detected by the eROSITA X-ray Space Telescope, an X-ray instrument built by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and launched in 2019. The Fermi and eROSITA Bubbles also have a counterpart in the microwave, known as the WMAP Haze, a diffuse microwave around the core of our galaxy. The WMAP Haze was detected with the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) in 2004 and again with the European Space Agency Planck Mission in 2013. 

Here is an animation made by NASA that shows an artist's interpretation of the Fermi Bubbles.

Here is a video made by the Chandra X-ray Observatory that describes X-ray emitting bubbles in the galaxy NGC 3079, which was discovered with the Chandra X-ray Telescope in 2019.

Credits for images, videos, and simulations featured in the animation:
- eROSITA telescope logo: MPE, Johannes Buchner
- Crab Supernova Explosion: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
- Westerlund 2: Hubble’s 25th anniversary image - NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team
- The Veil Supernova Explosion: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
- Galactic centre region: NASA, ESA, SSC, CXC and STScI
- Artist’s impression of the quasar 3C 279: ESO/M. Kornmesser
- Fermi gamma-ray lobes animation: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
- Launch of the James Webb Space Telescope: NASA/Bill Ingalls

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Meet The Creators

  • Educator Ashkbiz Danehkar
  • Director Igor Coric, Artrake Studio
  • Narrator Jack Cutmore-Scott
  • Music Cem Misirlioglu, Brooks Ball
  • Sound Designer Cem Misirlioglu
  • Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
  • Producer Sazia Afrin
  • Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
  • Editorial Producer Shannon Odell
  • Fact-Checker Charles Wallace

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