NASA has found very powerful cosmic X rays but it's not clear where it came from

It seems that yesterday was a big day for the US Aeronautics Agency, a study funded by NASA that solved one of the cosmic mysteries that bothered scientists for a long time: they found the source. The origin of X-rays is still found in the Solar System. In that discovery, they found another group of stronger and unknown sources of X-rays.

This study comes from an analysis of the data recorded in NASA's DXL mission, taking off in 2012 to find out what emits weak X-rays at the angle of our galaxy.

At that time, there were two hypotheses. The release of X-rays in the universe can be caused by the solar wind (a stream of charged particles emanating from the outer atmosphere of the Sun). But scientists also have another hypothesis that they come from Local Hot Bubble, a region of five theoretically, that contains hot gas and covers our Solar System. In the end, which theory is right?

Another theory is that they come from Local Hot Bubble.

"We have shown that only 40% of these X-rays are coming from the solar wind, " says space physicist Massimiliano Galeazzi, from the University of Miami. "It shows that the rest of the X-rays are coming from Local Hot Bubble, which becomes evidence for this giant bubble to exist".

This study decodes one of the long-standing debates about the universe, debating the origin of the mysterious X-rays. But that same research opens up another cosmic mystery.

When the DXL was launched in 2012, the flight was not long. On DXL is NASA sound rocket named Black Brant IX . The entire system soars above the Earth's atmosphere, receives the signal within 5 minutes and returns to the ground.

But in just a short 5-minute period, DXL's device has received unexpected signals from scientists: strong X-rays that certainly do not come from the solar wind or from the Local Hot Bubble .

How DXL collects data.

"With such a large amount of energy, the Sun or Local Hot Bubble does not produce up to a quarter of that," said researcher Youaraj Uprety . "There is still another X-ray source in this energy range."

After scientists discovered the existence of cosmic X rays in the 1960s, they knew that their source must be close to our Solar System, because the neutral gas in the System The Sun will absorb all the X-rays if they come from a place too far away.

Since then, the hypothesis of Local Hot Bubble, a 300-light-year-long bubble of ionized gas , envelops our Solar System, was born and also believed it was the source of the X-rays. that universe.

"We think that about 10 million years ago, a supernova exploded and it ionized the gas in the Local Hot Bubble," said Galeazzi, a researcher. " But a supernova is not powerful enough for a giant bubble to reach that" hot "temperature. It must be more than a supernova like that exploded in the past."

Recently, scientists have found that diffuse X-rays can be created right inside our Solar System , and since then, the solar wind hypothesis has been born.

Current scientists still cling to the origin of the DXL discovered X-rays.

When the solar wind interacts with neutral gas in the universe, they collect eletrons from those neutral particles. And once the electrons reach a fixed state, they lose their energy and that is the source of the emitted X-ray.

Thanks to the DXL mission, we know that both of these phenomena are responsible for producing X-rays in our Solar System.

This will give us a little more insight into the Local Hot Bubble, the giant bubble that we still have so little information about.
"We will better understand the structure surrounding our Solar System , " said researcher Uprety.

But for the stronger X-rays that DXL discovered, scientists are still clinging to their origins. When the energy of these X-rays is too large, it can come from the solar wind or Local Hot Bubble.

Don't worry, when last December, scientists put DXL-2 on orbit and when the research team began to analyze new information, they will solve the remaining mystery. this.

The current desire is that DXL-2 will capture new strange X-rays, so that we have a chance to learn more about the vast universe.