New Radio Image of the Galactic Center

[daniel l.]

https://gizmodo.com/new-south-african-telescope-releases-epic-image-of-the-1827572028

I find this to be absolutely stunning. It reminds me of Gregory Benford's novels. I'm hoping we'll someday visit this place -- in the distant future, no doubt.

[cubinator]

What is the scale of the image?

[Silavite]

27 minutes ago, cubinator said:

What is the scale of the image?

From one of the article's comments,

Quote

At the distance of the galactic centre (located within the white area near image centre), this 2 degree by 1 degree panorama corresponds to an area of approximately 1,000 light-years by 500 light-years.

 

[YNM]

11 hours ago, daniel l. said:

I'm hoping we'll someday visit this place -- in the distant future, no doubt.

To be fair, they'd look "boring" until you get reeeally close  

 

Are the radios from H-I and H-II regions ?

[daniel l.]

9 hours ago, YNM said:

Are the radios from H-I and H-II regions ?

Uh, I don't understand.

[Wjolcz]

2 hours ago, daniel l. said:

Uh, I don't understand.

Natural hydrogen frequency?

[YNM]

8 hours ago, Wjolcz said:

Natural hydrogen frequency?

yup, the 21 cm wavelength thing.

Also ionized hydrogen (for H II).

EDIT : On a second note, there's no way for an ionized hydrogen (H II, H+) to have any emission, so I don't think you can catch them on radio.

But my conclusion is that these "cool" structures would be completely invisible to the naked eye. (there's a reason why i'm only a visible light detector.)

Edited July 18, 2018 by YNM

[StrandedonEarth]

*adds to desktop wallpaper folder*

[Dark Lion]

!Mind blown!
What are those finer strands perpendicular to the galactic plane?! Are we seeing evidence of eddies in a galaxy-scale magnetosphere? Nova remnants from once-stars orbiting too near Sag A* shredded and ejected? Something else?

Stunning. I will definitely have my ears out for MeerKat and the coming Square Kilometer Array henceforth! Thanks for sharing @daniel l.

[YNM]

2 hours ago, Dark Lion said:

What are those finer strands perpendicular to the galactic plane?!

Some gas clouds are elongated thanks though encounters, but yeah it'd be interesting if we can figure out with some certainty what's going on !

[p1t1o]

4 hours ago, Dark Lion said:

!Mind blown!
What are those finer strands perpendicular to the galactic plane?! Are we seeing evidence of eddies in a galaxy-scale magnetosphere? Nova remnants from once-stars orbiting too near Sag A* shredded and ejected? Something else?

Stunning. I will definitely have my ears out for MeerKat and the coming Square Kilometer Array henceforth! Thanks for sharing @daniel l.

 

1 hour ago, YNM said:

Some gas clouds are elongated thanks though encounters, but yeah it'd be interesting if we can figure out with some certainty what's going on !

 

Those structures stood out for me too. Its worth noting that we arent looking at "stuff" we are looking at a pattern of radio waves, I wonder if it could be an optical effect, like the pattern light makes at the bottom of a pool? So radio emmissions from behind, refracted by some non-homogenous intervening medium?

[YNM]

13 hours ago, p1t1o said:

Its worth noting that we arent looking at "stuff" we are looking at a pattern of radio waves, I wonder if it could be an optical effect, like the pattern light makes at the bottom of a pool? So radio emmissions from behind, refracted by some non-homogenous intervening medium?

Yeah, lots of science to figure out there.

[Clonos]

That looks... aggressive to be honest.

[p1t1o]

Hey, does anyone have any good ideas about where to acquire a high-resolution version of this image?

I'll have a look around, but I know all youse guys are good at this stuff

I want it on my wall

 

edit:

Oh, if you click it, it links to a quite-high res image.

Anyone know if it is the highest res available?

 

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by p1t1o