Hubble image archive

Quasar's Light Yields Clues to Outflow

Date: Jan 1, 2017
Mission: Hubble Space Telescope
Archive ID: hubblesite-images-2017-10-3996-image

By Kakha Giorgashvili January 1, 2017

This illustration shows the light of several distant quasars piercing the northern half of the Fermi Bubbles, an outflow of gas expelled by our Milky Way galaxy's hefty black hole. The Hubble Space Telescope probed the quasars' light for information on the speed of the gas and whether the gas is moving toward or away from Earth. Based on the material's speed, the research team estimated that the bubbles formed from an energetic event between 6 million and 9 million years ago.

The inset diagram at bottom left shows the measurement of gas moving toward and away from Earth, indicating the material is traveling at a high velocity.

Hubble also observed light from quasars that passed outside the northern bubble. The box at upper right reveals that the gas in one such quasar's light path is not moving toward or away from Earth. This gas is in the disk of the Milky Way and does not share the same characteristics as the material probed inside the bubble.

Credits

NASA, ESA, and Z. Levy (STScI)

Image Details

About The Object
Object Name	Fermi Bubbles
R.A. Position	17h 28m 19.80s
Dec. Position	-14° 15' 55".87
Constellation	Serpens
About The Data
Data Description	The science team comprises: A. Fox and R. Bordoloi (STScI), B. Savage (University of Wisconsin, Madison), F. Lockman (NRAO/GBT), E. Jenkins (Princeton University Observatory), B. Wakker (University of Wisconsin, Madison), J. Bland-Hawthorn (Institute of Astronomy/University of Sydney), S. Hernandez (STScI), T.-S. Kim (Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Italy), R. Benjamin (University of Wisconsin, Whitewater), D. Bowen (Princeton University Observatory), and J. Tumlinson (STScI).
Instrument	HST>COS