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]

  On 7/17/2018 at 12:11 AM, cubinator said:

What is the scale of the image?

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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.

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[YNM]

  On 7/17/2018 at 12:02 AM, daniel l. said:

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

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

 

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

[daniel l.]

  On 7/17/2018 at 11:25 AM, YNM said:

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

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Uh, I don't understand.

[Wjolcz]

  On 7/17/2018 at 8:46 PM, daniel l. said:

Uh, I don't understand.

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Natural hydrogen frequency?

[YNM]

  On 7/17/2018 at 11:17 PM, Wjolcz said:

Natural hydrogen frequency?

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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]

  On 7/19/2018 at 10:56 AM, Dark Lion said:

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

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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]

  On 7/19/2018 at 10:56 AM, 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.

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  On 7/19/2018 at 1:49 PM, 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 !

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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]

  On 7/19/2018 at 3:46 PM, 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?

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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