
The Galactic Center GeV Excess (GCE) is an unexpected surplus of
gamma-ray radiation in the center of the
Milky Way
The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
Galaxy. This spherical source of radiation was first detected in 2009 by the
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and is unexplained by direct observation.
Two percent of the gamma ray radiation in a 30° radius circle around the Galactic Center is attributed to the GCE. , this excessive (and diffused) gamma-ray radiation is not well understood by astronomers.
Some astronomers argue that self-annihilating
dark matter (which is not otherwise known to radiate) may be the cause of the GCE, while others prefer a population of
pulsars (which have not been observed) as the source.
Astronomers have suggested that self-annihilating dark matter may be a dominant contributor to the GCE, based on analysis using
non-Poissonian template fitting statistical methods,
wavelet methods,
and studies by other astronomers may support this idea.
More recently, in August 2020, other astronomers have reported that self-annihilating dark matter may not be the explanation for the GCE after all.
Other hypotheses include ties to a yet unseen population of millisecond pulsars
or young pulsars, burst events, the stellar population of the
galactic bulge,
or the Milky Way's central
supermassive black hole.
See also
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References
Further reading
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{{Portal bar, Astronomy, Physics, Space
Gamma-ray astronomy
Galactic Center
Observational astronomy
Unsolved problems in astronomy