NASA detects “unexpected and unexplained signal outside the Milky Way”

The Fermi gamma-ray telescope detects a signal in space that poses a major mystery to research. Where does it come from?

GREEN BELT – While analyzing data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, a research team made a surprising discovery: “an unexpected and previously unexplained signal outside our Milky Way Galaxy.” This is what NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center wrote in a statement notice. “It is a completely accidental discovery,” confirms cosmologist Alexander Kashlinsky from Goddard Space Flight Center. “We found a much stronger signal than what we were looking for. It's coming from a different part of the sky than where we were looking.

Kashlinsky's research team actually wanted to conduct further research on cosmic background radiation using data from the Fermi gamma-ray telescope. Scientists encountered the mysterious gamma ray signal from a completely different direction. It was the study In the specialized magazine Astrophysical Journal Letters published.

An unexpected signal from the universe baffles researchers

“We have found a gamma-ray dipole, but its tip is in the southern sky, far from the cosmic background radiation, and its strength is 10 times greater than we would expect based on our motion,” explains co-author and astrophysicist. Chris Schrader of Goddard Space Flight Center.

The accidentally discovered signal becomes even stranger when you consider that it is located near another as-yet-unexplained mystery. The source of some of the oldest cosmic particles ever discovered has also been identified in this direction. The origin of the so-called UHECRs (ultra-high-energy cosmic rays) remains a mystery in astrophysics to this day.

What is behind the unknown signal from space?

Although the signal wasn't what they were looking for, we suspect it's related to a similar feature reported for higher-energy cosmic rays, Schrader says. Could a previously unknown source be causing gamma rays and very high-energy cosmic rays? To solve the cosmic mystery, the source of the gamma ray signal and high-energy radiation must either be found, or science must find new explanations for this phenomenon. Until then the mystery remains. (unpaid bill)