Expansive view of the Milky Way reveals our galaxy in unprecedented radio colour
13 days ago
- #astronomy
- #radio imaging
- #Milky Way
- Astronomers created the largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way.
- The image captures the Southern Hemisphere view of the Milky Way across various radio wavelengths.
- It offers new insights into star birth, evolution, and death in the Galaxy.
- Silvia Mantovanini spent 18 months and 1M CPU hours to construct the image using supercomputers.
- Data came from the GLEAM and GLEAM-X surveys conducted with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope.
- The new image has twice the resolution, ten times the sensitivity, and covers twice the area of the previous GLEAM image.
- The image helps distinguish between gas around new stars and remnants of dead stars.
- It may aid in studying pulsars and understanding their radio wave emissions.
- The survey catalogued 98,000 radio sources, including pulsars, planetary nebulae, and distant galaxies.
- The SKA-Low telescope, to be completed in the next decade, will surpass this image in sensitivity and resolution.