In South Africa, they capture the clearest image of the center of the Milky Way

South African scientists have captured what, up to now, is the clearest image of the center of the Milky Way, the galaxy of which our solar system is a part.

"The center of the galaxy was an obvious target: unique, visually striking and full of unexplained phenomena. " It is also notoriously difficult to be photographed with a radio telescope, "Fernando said in a statement Camilo, Chief Scientist of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (Sarao)

the center of the galaxy, located 25,000 light-years from Earth, behind the constellation Sagittarius. remains wrapped in clouds of gas and dust, which makes it difficult to grasp, as Fernando Camilo said

The photograph was made thanks to a new telescope called MeerKAT.

This radio telescope has the ability to pierce these gaseous elements by means of infrared, X-rays and, in particular, the radio wave lengths penetrate the dust which s & # 39; darkens and open a window in this distinctive region with its black hole of 4 million solar mbades (a solar mbad is a unit of measurement equivalent to the mbad of the Sun) located in the center of the galaxy.

The South African Observatory only uses this equipment for a few days. Therefore, the director is confident that they will obtain other interesting images . [ad_2]
Source link