Astronomers find mysterious 'barrier' separating cosmic rays from Milky Way's black hole

In a bizarre new finding, astronomers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing have found that an unidentified "barrier" is preventing high-energy cosmic rays from reaching the centre of the Milky Way galaxy. The scientists observed a map of radioactive gamma rays and compiled a study which was made public earlier this month in the Journal Science Communications, as per Space.com. This new revelation has added to the peculiarity of the milky way as well the black hole named Sagittarius A*, which sits right at the centre. This black hole, which is 4 million times the mass of the sun, is surrounded by millions of stars. 

The unidentified barrier

The map of radioactive gamma rays, which the astronomers analysed, revealed that an abundance of cosmic rays and gamma-rays were being created as something at the centre of our galaxy accelerated particles to speeds equal to that of light. Although, what emerged as surprising was the fact that a large portion of those cosmic rays was being prevented from reaching the centre despite a massive storm of high-energy radiation being blown out from the galactic centre. In simpler terms, particles were being pushed out of the centre but were not being allowed to enter. 

Experts suggested that this phenomenon is keeping the density of cosmic rays lower than the levels recorded elsewhere in the galaxy and named this effect as a “barrier”. However, even the experts were unable to determine why it existed and what are the factors driving it. It is to be noted that our planet is located in the Sagittarius constellation 26,000 light-years away from the centre of the milky way, which has over 1 million times as many stars per light-year as the entire solar system, Space.com reported.

The astronomers were able to present the theory of varying densities of cosmic rays using data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope. It has been known that protons and electrons are accelerated to near light speed, by the central black hole or some unidentified entity, which then yields cosmic rays that travel throughout space. The study experts found via the telescope that particles were indeed being accelerated by an unknown entity, possibly the black hole and pushed out into space. In contrast, studying the aforementioned sea of cosmic rays revealed that the density of cosmic rays dropped significantly at the point where scientists located the barrier. While this has posed several new questions about our universe, astronomers believe that more in-depth research is required to solve this mystery.

(Image: Twitter/@MysteryLyrical)