A new image of the heart of the Milky Way is revealing strange structures we have never seen before.
The images were taken using the ultra-sensitive MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, and show nearly 1,000 strands of magnetic filaments, measuring up to 150 light-years in length.
Adding important statistical data may help us understand the nature of these strands, a puzzle since their discovery in the 1980s.
Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, an astronomer at Northwestern University, says they have studied individual filaments for a long time.
We finally see the big picture, a panoramic view filled with an abundance of filaments. It's hard to draw a conclusion about what they are and where they came from. This is a big step in furthering our understanding of these structures.
Although it is only 25,000 light-years away, the center of the Milky Way is hard to see. It is covered by dense clouds of dust and gas that block some light frequencies. We can use technology to modify our vision.
The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) has one of the most advanced radio telescopes in the world, and since opening its eye in 2016 it has been giving us an unprecedented set of insights into the galactic center.
Its latest image is amazing. It was constructed from 200 hours of observation data, collected over three years, and it shows us the region in radio wavelength with clarity and depth.
The center of the universe has a spectral index. The Oxford University is a part of theNorthwestern University.
Yusef-Zadeh and his team used a technique to remove the background from the image to reveal the magnetic strings in the clusters.
It is not clear what they are or how they came to be. We know that they contain Cosmic-ray electrons, which spin around in magnetic fields at close to light-speeds.
The images have allowed the researchers to find out more about the strands, which is a step closer to understanding them.
If you were from another planet, you might assume all people are tall. Yusef-Zadeh says that you can find the average height if you do statistics across a population of people.
That is exactly what we are doing. We can find the strength of magnetic fields, their lengths, their orientations, and the spectrum of radiation.
The magnetic fields are amplified along the entire length of the filaments. A previously unknown supernova remnant has been revealed by the new data. The remnant of the supernova can't be ruled out as a progenitor.
A spherical supernova remnant has been discovered. I. Heywood/SARAO.
The existence of giant radio bubbles above and below the galactic plane was revealed in previous data. It is possible that the filaments are related to the radio bubbles, but it will need to be explored in a future paper.
There was a new mystery revealed by the new data. The strings of a harp are similar to the distribution of the filaments in clusters.
Yusef-Zadeh says that they almost resemble the regular spacing in solar loops. Multiple other questions arise when we answer one question.
We don't know how the electrons are accelerated. There is a possibility that the filaments is related to a strange magnetic filament that emits radiation in both radio and X-ray wavelengths.
The next step will be to study each filament in turn and catalog its properties in order to allow in-depth statistical analyses.
Yusef-Zadeh says that science is a series of progress on different levels. We want to get to the bottom of it, but more analysis is needed. A full understanding of complex objects takes time.
The research is available on arXiv. A companion paper describing the mosaic is available on arXiv. The data has been made public.
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