MeerKAT Releases Epic Image of the Galactic Center

Credit: SARAO

You’re looking at the center of our galactic home, the Milky Way, as imaged by 64 radio telescopes in the South African wilderness.

Scientists released this image today to inaugurate the completed MeerKAT radio telescope. But these scopes form part of an even more ambitious project: the Square Kilometer Array, a joint effort to build the world’s largest telescope, spanning the continents of Africa and Australia.

This image shows filaments of particles, structures that seem to exist in alignment with the galaxy’s central black hole. It’s unclear what causes these filaments. Maybe they are particles ejected by the spinning black hole; maybe they are hypothesized “cosmic strings;” and maybe they’re not unique, and there are other, similar structures waiting to be found, according to a 2017 release from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“This image from MeerKAT is awesome to me because the fine filaments seen in the radio image are excellent tracers of the galactic magnetic field, something we don’t get to see in most optical and infrared data,” Erin Ryan, principal investigator at the SETI Institute, told Gizmodo.

Gizmodo.com - New South African Telescope Releases Epic Image of the Galactic Center.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth ATS! To help celebrate your triskaidekaphobia the good folk manning the meerKAT radio telescope in South Africa have published a photo of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way. You can go to gizmodo to see the full picture (~9 MB) as the one seen here is a dithered version of the same.

Last year (??), meerKAT took a photo of blank patch of space and found hundreds of galaxies there. That was with only 16 of the telescopes up and running. In May, 2018, they had all 64 telescopes up and on the pads. They are 13.5 meter dishes and are looking at big structures in the cosmos. Looks like they have done a shakedown of controls! The radio signals are converted over to visible spectrum signals we can see, so yes, I know, it is not a "photo of the galactic center" (that should be coming with project Event Horizon sometime this year) per se, but it is still pretty dang cool!

This is only the beginning! They have all 64 antennae up but they are not at their target operating frequency. This is kind of first shot at a lower frequency (750 MHz) with a final target of 4 GHz.

After that, who knows? They can link up radio telescopes, both ground based and space based, to get a very long baseline interferometry where radio signals from distant sources are stitched together to create large virtual apertures. That will be great if another neutron star merger is detected!

This is new. This is cool! And with Webb space telescope pushing the launch date further back, this is as good as it gets!



Wikipedia links:
MeerKAT
Radio interferometry (mainly, but radio telescopes in general)

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I want one!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Dont you know Thetans when they're staring you in the face?

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss



My audit did not find any unusual engrams. I haven't paid, er, reached O III yet! So no, I guess I don't know a thetan when I see one (or a dozen). Xenu looks rather bright this time of year, no?

Last month, scientists linked a powerful optical telescope, MeerLITCH, built 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Carnarvon, with the MeerKAT to allow for simultaneous optic and radio study of cosmic events as they occur.

phys.org - South Africa unveils super radio telescope.

That is cool. The wave in astronomy is multiple instruments using multiple wavelengths of the EM spectrum. And as with the Ligo and Virgo observations of the neutron star merger, even gravity waves.

The watchers live there
The creators of humans the makers of the moon

originally posted by: Spacespider
The watchers live there
The creators of humans the makers of the moon

It's God's summer house.

Lest we forget...

ATS, Space Exploration: Dozen black holes found at galactic centre.

The MeerKAT image is not just the SMBH in the center of the Milky Way but dozens (the phys.org article says, "10s of thousands") of black holes there in the neighborhood. Add stars doing a swan dive into the event horizon it is kind of a wonder that there is any kind of structure visible in the MeerKAT photo!

What a chaotic place the center of the galaxy is!

I think we will see more clearly just how violent it is as the new telescopes come on line in the next, what, 5 (??), 10 (??), 15 or so years.

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I propose that something is going on there that is completely different than what our theories predict.

The fact no one knows what they are looking at is a good indication of that.

originally posted by: muzzleflash
I propose that something is going on there that is completely different than what our theories predict.
The fact no one knows what they are looking at is a good indication of that.

All that energy has to be messing with time in some strange way.

But it certainly doesn't look like a good place to look for life of any kind.

a reply to: muzzleflash


I always have to stop myself and instead of saying, "Oh, it is just the black hole at the center of the galaxy" and remind myself just what is meant by "supermassive black hole" when it takes 17 light-hours to cross!

The fact that radio waves make it through the clouds of dust surrounding Sgr A* makes it a prime candidate to study using radio telescopes. Part of the problem is people view these things are cosmic entities when in fact they are quantum entities! Which probably means they are indeed stranger than we realize!

It is cool to see magnetic filaments, as matter (possibly plasma) follows the field lines around the BH like iron filings on a piece of paper over a magnet! Blows my mind that stars are being devoured to make that effect!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Remember reading about MeerKAT , glad to see they've got all 64 up and running , that's an impressive thing.

This image shows filaments of particles, structures that seem to exist in alignment with the galaxy’s central black hole. It’s unclear what causes these filaments. Maybe they are particles ejected by the spinning black hole; maybe they are hypothesized “cosmic strings;” and maybe they’re not unique, and there are other, similar structures waiting to be found,

Hope they're cosmic strings.
Cool.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Dont you know Thetans when they're staring you in the face?

That’s no nuked volcano

a reply to: BigDave-AR

Of course it is! Its the top down view.

Who is anyone to say it isnt???

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: BigDave-AR

Of course it is! Its the top down view.

Who is anyone to say it isnt???

Perhaps LRH will investigate in his space DC-8 after having dropped his body. People like LRH give us redheads a bad rap (first person to call me a ginger dies I have no freckles!!!).

a reply to: BigDave-AR

What? He's the greatest ginger ever. Rejoice!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

Does anyone know if this fits electric universe at all yet? It looks like it might to me but I can't research it yet.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: BigDave-AR

What? He's the greatest ginger ever. Rejoice!

You deftly sidestepped that sir I suppose I’ll give ya a pass this time buddy.

originally posted by: randomthoughts12
Does anyone know if this fits electric universe at all yet?

Well, there are plasma bolts here that are likely light-years long. But they don't look like they're sparking from one star to another one. And besides, if it takes the energy of dozens of black holes to make them, it seems pretty unlikely that they'd be happening in the space around dull little stars and planets like ours.

a reply to: randomthoughts12


Not a believer in the electric universe for whatever that is worth. So do not know the gritty details about the pros or cons for that viewpoint.

As far as cosmic entities go, whipping matter to the point it become x-rays, cosmic rays, and other forms of radiation shows just how powerful the forces are around a BH! If those research papers are right, there are thousands of black holes around the central one, so there is a lot of turmoil and turbulence happening.

The dust cloud surrounding Sgr A* is something like 30 light years wide. As muzzleflash said, who knows what is going on inside there! Magnetic, gravitic, quantum effects, so, hey, why not electricity! Just because there may be some electric activity does not necessarily prove the electric universe theory. From what I can recall, there was a bunch of stuff that did not seem to make sense with what is observable now which is why I haven't really paid it much attention.

Good luck on doing research! I thought it was a cool picture and a nice milestone to acknowledge!