Scientists get the clearest image of the center of the Milky Way – 14/07/2018

South African scientists revealed Friday the clearest image ever taken of the center of the Milky Way, occupied by a huge black hole, thanks to a new radio telescope called MeerKAT

"The center of the galaxy was an obvious goal: "It is also notoriously difficult to be photographed with radio telescopes," said Fernando Camilo, scientific director of the South African Observatory of Radioastronomy (SARAO), in a statement.

The center of the Milky Way is 25,000 light-years from Earth behind the constellation Sagittarius, and is constantly enveloped in clouds of gas and dust, which makes it invisible of our planet, the normal telescopes.

However, infrared technology, X-rays and radio waves can penetrate obstacles and "open a window" on the 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 image released by the South African team covers an area of ​​1000 light-years per 500 light-years, with a clear region at its center corresponding to the center of the galaxy.

"Although they are the first days with the MeerKAT and there is a lot to optimize, we decided to go there and we are surprised results, "said Camilo, according to the text of Awarded by the project SKA Africa, dedicated to the construction of radio telescopes.

The SKA, in which the MeerKAT is framed, is a project involving eleven countries: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Holland, India, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and the United Kingdom – and in which collaborate about twenty others, including Spain.

The goal is to build in Australia and South Africa the largest radio telescope in the world that will be able to capture images with 50 times higher resolution than those taken by Hubble, in what is one of the most great scientific and technological challenges of history.

The MeerKAT, whose construction It was officially inaugurated at a ceremony in the presence of Vice President of South Africa, David Mabuza, and operates from the semi-arid region of Karoo, in the province of Cabo del Norte (northwest).

It is currently the most powerful telescope in the southern hemisphere of the planet and has 64 satellite dishes each 13.5 meters in diameter.

Source: EFE