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South African scientists today revealed the sharpest image ever taken of the center of the Milky Way, occupied by a huge black hole, thanks to a new telescope called MeerKAT
" The center of the galaxy was an obvious goal: only visually beautiful and full of unexplained phenomena, but it is notoriously difficult to be photographed with radio telescopes, "said Fernando Camilo, scientific director of the radio station. South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)
. At 25,000 light-years from Earth, behind the constellation Sagittarius, it is constantly enveloped in clouds of gas and dust, making it invisible from our planet to normal telescopes.
However, infrared technology, lightning X-waves and radio can penetrate the obstacles and "open a window" to 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 today by the South African team covers an area of 1000 light-years by 500 light-years, with a clear region in its midst Corresponding to the center of the Alaxia
"Although they are the first days with the MeerKAT and there is still much to optimize, we decided to go there and we marveled at the results, "said Camilo, according to the text published by SKA Africa The SKA, in which the MeerKAT is framed, is a project in which eleven countries participate: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Holland, India, Italy, New Zealand , United Kingdom, South Africa and Sweden. – 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, capable of capturing images with a resolution 50 times higher than those taken by Hubble. which is one of the biggest scientific and technological challenges in history.
The MeerKAT, whose construction lasted a decade and is one of the precursors of the SKA, was officially inaugurated today by a vice president. resident of South Africa, David Mabuza, and operates in the semi-arid region of Karoo, in North Cape Province (northwest).
He is currently the most powerful telescope in the southern hemisphere of the planet. 5 meters in diameter each.
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