Abstract
We have discovered a highly unusual radio source lying within 1° of the galactic centre whose 'cometary' morphology suggests that it is a wake produced by a radio source moving supersonically with respect to the ambient interstellar medium. Most galactic sources of nonthermal radio continuum radiation are supernova remnants, which retain a degree of spherical symmetry. Observations of high sensitivity and resolution from the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico have shown that within a few degrees of the galactic centre the sky harbours a number of unusual asymmetric structures, including narrow filaments1–3 and highly distorted supernova remnants4–7. Here we report the finding of a collimated axisymmetric nonthermal source.
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References
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Yusef-Zadeh, F., Bally, J. A non-thermal axially symmetric radio wake towards the galactic centre. Nature 330, 455–458 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/330455a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/330455a0
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