Mysterious radiation from the center of the Galaxy, explained by pulsars

Scientists have suggested that the mysterious gamma ray from the center of the Milky Way, known as the Galactic Center Excess, is not evidence of the existence of dark matter. They explained it by the total radiation of one hundred thousand pulsars.

The center of the Galaxy, where the mysterious rays come from. Source: Wikipedia

Radiation from the center of the Galaxy created pulsars

Scientists from the National University of Australia recently explained a mysterious phenomenon in the gamma range from the center of our Galaxy. The excess of giga electronic range radiation was first detected in 2009. It was named Galactic Center GeV Excess, that is, the Galactic Center Excess (GCE).

In an article published in Nature Astronomy, GCE could be explained by millisecond pulsars. These heavy supernova remnants make hundreds of revolutions per second. The fact that they produce gamma radiation has been known for a long time. But until now, no one has explained the Galactic Center Excess by them, because it was believed that a single neutron star was too weak for this.

However, in the model proposed in the article, this problem was solved. The authors suggested that the GCE is the result of radiation from about 100 thousand millisecond pulsars. And in fact, nothing is impossible here. The surroundings of the galactic center have been studied rather poorly, but it is known that there are more supernova remnants there than at the periphery.

Dark Matter or Pulsars

What makes this study somewhat sensational is that the proposed explanation of the GCE is an alternative to the one that scientists have been following for the last decade. It was believed that the excess was evidence of the existence of dark matter.

In the basic theory of GCE, it is assumed that gamma radiation is born in the process of self-destruction of dark matter. The pulsar explanation is considerably less exotic. And we don’t have much direct evidence of the existence of dark matter.

And yet, the “pulsar” explanation of the GCE does not refute the presence of dark matter in any way. These supernova remnants even help to search for it. And the huge cluster of neutron stars in the center of the Milky Way may be interesting.

According to phys.org

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