1 00:00:00,070 --> 00:00:10,100 (Music) 2 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:14,220 Narrator-Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, scientists have recently 3 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:18,290 discovered a gigantic, mysterious structure in our galaxy. 4 00:00:18,310 --> 00:00:22,360 This never-before-seen feature looks like a pair of bubbles extending above 5 00:00:22,380 --> 00:00:26,500 and below our galaxy's center. 6 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:30,540 These enormous, gamma-ray emitting lobes aren't immediately visible in the Fermi all-sky 7 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,600 map, however, by processing the data, a group of scientists 8 00:00:34,620 --> 00:00:38,680 able to bring these unexpected structures into sharp relief. 9 00:00:38,700 --> 00:00:44,810 (Music) 10 00:00:44,830 --> 00:00:48,890 Each lobe is 25,000 light-years tall, and the whole structure may be only 11 00:00:48,910 --> 00:00:52,930 a few million years old. Within the bubbles 12 00:00:52,950 --> 00:00:56,980 extremely energetic electrons are interacting with lower-energy light to create 13 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,010 gamma rays, but right now no one knows the source of these electrons. 14 00:01:01,030 --> 00:01:05,040 Are the bubbles remnants of a massive burst of star formation? 15 00:01:05,060 --> 00:01:09,140 Leftovers from an eruption by the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's center? 16 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:13,240 Or did these forces work in tandem to produce them? Scientists aren't sure yet 17 00:01:13,260 --> 00:01:17,280 but the more they learn about this amazing structure, the better we'll understand