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A million times more energy than emitted from a dying star's supernova explosion has been detected in a huge outflow of charged particles from the centre of Earth's Milky Way galaxy, says a study co-authored by a leading astrophysicist from The University of Western Australia.

The outflow extends more than halfway across the sky and is moving at supersonic speeds, said UWA Professor Lister Staveley-Smith, Deputy Director of Perth's International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO).

Professor Staveley-Smith said the phenomenon - which had been mapped in the study - was driven by many generations of stars forming and exploding in the Galactic Centre over the last hundred million years.

Previously, astronomers were unclear if energy injected into the outflows originated from quasar-like activity of our Galaxy's central super-massive black hole or from star formation.

A paper published last week in Nature details findings by a team of astronomers from Australia, the USA, Italy and The Netherlands using the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation's 64m Parkes radio telescope in the Australian Capital Territory.

The research was led by the CSIRO's Dr Ettore Carretti.

More information and a full resolution image are available at the ICRAR website .

Media references

Professor Lister Staveley-Smith (Deputy Director ICRAR & CAASTRO)  (+61 4) 25 212 592
Kirsten Gottschalk (Media Contact, ICRAR)  (+61 8)  6488 7771  /  (+61 4) 38 361 876
Dr Wiebke Ebeling (Media Contact, CAASTRO)  (+61 4) 23 933 444
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783