Mysterious Gamma Rays Pour From the Milky Way’s Heart — What Does It Mean?

Astronomers have spent more than a decade investigating an unexpected gamma-ray glow around the Milky Way’s center. Despite dramatic descriptions of radiation “pouring” outward, this is not a new explosion but a persistent excess remaining after known emissions are modeled.

A machine-learning analysis has now reopened the argument over its origin. The findings do not identify dark matter, but they weaken a major case that the signal must come from hidden, rapidly spinning neutron stars.