Images of the flamboyant MeerKAT radio telescope heart of the Milky Way – Astronomy Now

The newly inaugurated MeerKAT 64-antenna radio telescope in South Africa, forerunner of Square Kilometer Array, imagined the heart of the Milky Way with new details, revealing long, magnetized filaments and the blaze "We wanted to show the scientific capabilities of this new instrument," said Fernando Camilo, scientific chief of the South African Observatory of Radioastronomy. "The center of the galaxy was an obvious target: unique, visually striking and full of unexplained phenomena, but also notoriously difficult to image using radio telescopes.Although the early days of MeerKAT are still numerous and that there is no doubt about it. there is still a lot to do, we decided to go – and we were stunned by the results. "

Built by SARAO and inaugurated on July 13 by Vice President David Mabuza. Square Kilometer Array, the largest radio telescope in the world with hundreds of dishes distributed in Australia and South Africa.At the state, the antennas of MeerKAT provide 2000 unique antenna pairs, "resulting in High-fidelity images of the sky radio, "said the SARAO in a press release

Earth's Sun orbits around the core of the galaxy at 25,000 light-years .. While the gas and dust that s & d # 39; enfonc They cover the hidden heart of the galaxy where we know that a super-mbadive black hole is located, the radio waves cross it to give a glimpse of its hidden features. The initial observations of MeerKAT provide an enticing indication of things to come.

The long magnetized filaments discovered in the 1980s, near the central black hole and nowhere else, are of particular interest. Their origin is a mystery.

"The image of MeerKAT has such clarity," Farhad Yusef-Zadeh marveled from Northwestern University in the United States, an expert on the filamentary structures seen near the central black hole. "The picture shows as much features never before seen, including compact sources badociated with some of the filaments, that it could provide the key to deciphering the code and solving this three-decade enigma. "