[imagesource: Ian Heywood / SARAO]

What can be found at the centre of our galaxy?

We may never know exactly what’s cracking up there in the great beyond, but thanks to the MeerKAT telescope we are a little closer to finding out.

The MeerKAT, which is managed by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), is responsible for the clearest image ever of the centre of our galaxy.

Inaugurated in 2018, it was previously known as the Karoo Array Telescope and is the most sensitive of its sort in the world.

Last year, it was in the news after it brought to light 20 previously undiscovered galaxies.

Made up of 64 antennae spread across an eight-kilometre diameter in the Northern Cape, astronomers are positively frothing at its capabilities.

Here’s TimesLIVE:

The image [below] shows radio emission from the region with “unprecedented clarity and depth” and is a culmination of three years of detailed analysis of a survey conducted during the telescope’s commissioning phase, according to a statement released by SARAO.

“The image captures radio emission from numerous phenomena, including outbursting stars, stellar nurseries and the chaotic region about the 4-million solar mass supermassive black hole that lurks in the centre of our galaxy, 25,000 light-years from Earth,” said the statement.

I find it impossible to read the words “supermassive black hole” without humming that Muse song.

Just me? Moving on.

The MeerKAT is operated by an international team, which will publish data from the image in The Astrophysical Journal for further exploration by astronomers around the world.

That stunning image right up the top of the page, according to Astronomy Now, shows “a runaway pulsar known as the ‘mouse’ seen at left, possibly ejected from supernova G359.1-0.5, the remnant at the centre of this image. At upper right is one of the longest and most famous radio filaments, known as the ‘snake.'”

There’s also this gem:

Sagittarius A*, the 4-million-solar-mass black hole at the core of the Milky Way shows up as a blaze of surrounding radio emissions, along with huge magnetised radio filaments in cirrus-like arcs.

The imagery is based on detailed analysis of a survey carried out during the telescope’s commissioning, resulting in a mosaic of 20 observations captured during 200 hours of telescope time. The result is a 100-megapixel mosaic with a resolution of 4 arc seconds.

Heywood, from the University of Oxford, Rhodes University, and SARAO, and also the lead author of the study in The Astrophysical Journal, is over the moon:

“I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this (mosaic) in the process of working on it, and I never get tired of it.”

…”When I show this image to people who might be new to radio astronomy, or otherwise unfamiliar with it, I always try to emphasise that radio imaging hasn’t always been this way, and what a leap forward MeerKAT really is in terms of its capabilities.”

“It’s been a true privilege to work over the years with colleagues from SARAO who built this fantastic telescope.”

As we begin our march towards the weekend, may you find something in life that excites in the same way that astronomy does Heywood.

It’s Friday, then.

[sources:timeslive&astronomynow]