A maelstrom of radiation, turbulent gas clouds, intense star formation, supernovae, huge bubbles of radio energy, and of course a giant black hole can be found in the inner 600 light years of our galaxy. This bustling downtown of the Milky Way is a potential treasure trove of discovery but has been difficult to study as the central regions are obscured by dust and glaring radiation. A new image of this region shows more detail than has ever been seen before. There are some familiar objects like supernovae and some mysterious structures.
The centre of the galaxy is as it has never been seen before.
The power of the observatory was needed to create this amazing image. There is a point in the sky 25,000 light years away from the constellation Sagittarius. The Universe is visible in radio waves because of the dust in the air. The image above is the result of over 100 hours of telescope observation and 70 terabytes of raw data. A mosaic of 6 square degrees of the sky is the equivalent of 30 full Moons and 4 full Moons wide. If your eyes were sensitive to radio waves, this is what the universe would look like above you.
There are hundreds of billions of stars in the disk of the Milky Way. There is a region within the core called the Central Molecular Zone, or CMZ, which is 10 to 1000 times denser than the outer disk of the Milky Way. Fresh gas is being drawn toward the CMZ to create clusters of young massive stars. Some of the stars have exploded in these clusters.
There are stars exploding and gas flowing in the center of the galaxy, but we don't fully understand them. Up to 150 light years in length, giant magnetic tendrils reach out from the core of the Milky Way. They appear in pairs or clusters, separated from each other by 1AU, and act like wires conducting electrons accelerated to near the speed of light.
WeTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkia Farhad Yusef-Zadeh discovered them in the 1980s. The new image uncovered 1000 more filaments than before. The shapes of the gas and star forming regions at the centre of the galaxy make it hard to see the filaments.
The magnetic nature of the filaments creates a unique signature of radiation that can be detected. The motion of high speed electrons through a magnetic field creates synchrotron radiation. The radiation allows for the images to be teased out. The edges of the filaments are highlighted by software image processing.
Why are the electrons unique to the centre of the galaxy, and what are the lengths of the filaments?
There is a black hole at the center of the universe. There are a few types of black holes. The mass of our Sun is about the same as the mass of a million or more supermassives. There are two large bubbles of gas emitting radio waves outside of the central region of the Milky Way. Above and below the galactic plane, they are symmetrical.
The bubbles are thought to have been created by a massive eruption from our black hole about 100,000 to a million years ago. Huge amounts of energy are released when large black holes feed. Black holes are messy eaters.
The region has been the site of star formation and supernovae explosions. The magnetic fields of the radio bubbles and star formation could be involved in the creation of the filaments. The black hole's electrons travel along the length of the filaments.
The interaction between the black hole and the supernova would explain why the filaments are unique to this part of the universe. They appear only in the radio bubbles. Cosmic rays, high energy particles created by stars, have been captured by the filaments. The particles can be dated by leaving a time stamp on them. The time stamp on the Cosmic Ray shows the same period of black hole eruption as the time stamp on the filaments. It is possible to catalog each of the clusters to learn more about them and the story of the centre of our galaxy.
There are some amazing things in our universe that are busy downtown. The image below shows a spherical supernova explosion, which is rare for supernovae images which are usually more asymmetrical.
The mini-spiral below is thought to be a structure from the central black hole of the Milky Way.
Karl Jansky first detected radio emission from the galactic centre in the early 1930's. The earliest version of what MeerKAT is observing now was considered the birth of radio astronomy. It is possible that some of the radio emissions Jansky detected were the first observations of the black hole.
Jansky built his radio telescope on Ford Model-T wheels. The work of the lead author and the research team that created the mosaic image would not have been possible without the MeerKAT facility.
The most sensitive radio telescope in the world is located in the Northern Cape of South Africa. Between facilities like this, and the newly launched JWST, we are in for a front row seat to the Universe's reveal.
There is a feature image.
There are 65 radio dishes in South Africa. The image is four times larger than the Moon. The full sized version of the picture was posted in Astronomy Picture of the Day. You should definitely check out Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos's channel on social media. I've seen some of the cool Astro images.
The new radio image shows a complex heart of the Milky Way.
There are nearly 1,000 strands in the center of Milky Way.
The original research publication is free open access.
There are statistical properties of the population of the Galactic Center Filaments.
South Africa's MeerKAT discovered giant radio bubbles at the center of the universe.
The black hole in the galaxy is making new stars faster than it can.
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