An image of the center of the Milky Way captured by a new telescope launched in South Africa (Photo: South African Radio Astronomy Observatory)

A new telescope in South Africa captured a panoramic picture of what scientists claim to be the clearest view of the center of the Milky Way.

The MeerKAT Radio Telescope was built and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), and is located in the country. Northern Cape

The telescope captured a mbadive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, which is 25,000 light-years from Earth and can not be seen with an ordinary telescope. Because it's covered with clouds of dust and gas.

"We wanted to show the scientific capabilities of this new instrument," said Fernando Camilo, chief scientist of SARAO, in a statement. "The center of the galaxy was an obvious target: unique, visually striking and full of unexplained phenomena – but also notoriously difficult to image with the help of radio telescopes."

The researchers said the panorama captured an area of ​​about 1000 light-years by 500 years. The telescope has been under construction for ten years

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The colors displayed in the book image are related to the brightness of the radio waves recorded by the telescope. low emissions to orange, yellow and white for the brightest.

Among the details captured by the image are magnetized filaments near the black hole in the center, but not present anywhere else in the galaxy. They were discovered in 1980. "The MeerKAT image has such clarity," said Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University and one of the world's leading experts. world of the Milky Way. A declaration. "It shows so many features never seen before, including compact sources badociated with some of the filaments."

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