Scientists take pictures of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way

The MeerKAT telescope helped scientists at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory take pictures of the center of the Milky Way, where the supermassive black hole is located.

To achieve the goal, it took two dozen 10-hour sessions. The research lasted for three years. The computers had to analyze 70 TB of data to get the results. The image resolution was 100 MP.

In the photo above, areas of strong radio emission are captured in color. The gray background corresponds to regions with relatively low radiation.

Also, the observatory specialists were able to capture the remnants of supernovae, radio filaments and star formation in the photo. All this can be seen in the pictures below. As for radio filaments, scientists still cannot understand their nature, although the first radio filament was discovered in 1980. Now there are more than a thousand of them, and they can stretch for tens of light years.

A source: Astronomy Now