A non-thermal axially symmetric radio wake towards the galactic centre

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 filaments^1-3 and highly distorted supernova remnants^4-7. Here we report the finding of a collimated axisymmetric nonthermal source.