Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
written by a professional astronomer.
2019 July 8
The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT
Image Credit: MeerKAT, SARAO
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
inaugural image of the MeerKAT array of 64 radio dishes just completed
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 just to the right of 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.
Tomorrow's picture: eclipse birds
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
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