狐獴阵列在无线电波段所拍摄的银河中心

2022年2月2日

The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT
Image Credit: Ian Heywood (Oxford U.), SARAO; Color Processing: Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos (ESO)

Explanation: What’s happening at the center of our galaxy? It’s hard to tell with optical telescopes since visible light is blocked by intervening interstellar dust. In other bands of light, though, such as radio, the galactic center can be imaged and shows itself to be quite an interesting and active place. The featured picture shows the latest image of our Milky Way’s center by the MeerKAT array of 64 radio dishes in South Africa. Spanning four times the angular size of the Moon (2 degrees), the image is impressively vast, deep, and detailed. Many known sources are shown in clear detail, including many with a prefix of Sgr, since the galactic center is in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. In our Galaxy’s Center lies Sgr A, found here in the image center, which houses the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole. Other sources in the image are not as well understood, including the Arc, just to the left of Sgr A, and numerous filamentary threads. Goals for MeerKAT include searching for radio emission from neutral hydrogen emitted in a much younger universe and brief but distant radio flashes.

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Tomorrow’s picture: Sunlight’s embrace

狐獴阵列在无线电波段所拍摄的银河中心
影像提供: Ian Heywood (Oxford U.), SARAO; 色彩处理: Juan Carlos Munoz-Mateos (ESO)

说明: 我们银河系的核心发生了什么事？由于可见光会受到居间的星际尘埃之遮挡，因此用可见光望远镜很难看出端倪。不过，银河中心在其他电磁波段（诸如电波/射电波段）不但可见也易于造影，从而显示它是一个有趣且活跃的区域。这幅由南非．狐獴阵列64座电波碟所拍摄的最新主题影像，呈现了我们银河中心的最新景象。这幅涵盖4倍满月（2度）天区的细致、大范围深空影像，无比清晰的呈现许多已知的电波源，包括数个以Sqr为前缀字的天体，因为银河的核心就在半人马座（Sagittarius；sgr）方向。其中于影像中央，我们银河中心所在的Sgr A（半人马座A），里头藏着银河系的超大质量中心黑洞。而对影像里的其他电波源，包括Sgr A左侧的电波弧及难以数计的丝状结构，我们的了解并不完整。在狐獴阵列所设定的诸多科学目标之中，包含寻找极早期宇宙的中性氢之电波辐射，以及遥远且短暂的电波闪烁。 （MeerKAT array 狐獴阵列）

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明日的图片: Sunlight’s embrace