Cosmic particle accelerator seen
By Paul Rincon
BBC News science reporter, in Birmingham
The researchers saw the loop when looking at the Arches Cluster
Astronomers have discovered a loop-like structure some 20 light-years across close to the centre of the Milky Way.
And the team that found it believes the vast, bizarre structure could be some form of cosmic particle accelerator.
The loop may produce sub-atomic particles with a thousand times more energy than those in man-made accelerators.
Details were presented at the National Astronomy Meeting in Birmingham.
The loop was seen using the European space telescope XMM-Newton to study it in X-ray wavelengths.
The galactic centre can only be observed at certain wavelengths - such as X-rays - because large amounts of dust lie in our line of sight, blocking out optical light.
"The X-ray spectrum of the loop is extraordinary," said Dr Masaaki Sakano of the University of Leicester.
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