Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2019 July 8

                  The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT
                        Image Credit: MeerKAT, SARAO

   Explanation: What's happening at the center of our galaxy? It's hard to
   tell with optical telescopes since visible light is blocked by
   intervening interstellar dust. In other bands of light, though, such as
   radio, the galactic center can be imaged and shows itself to be quite
   an interesting and active place. The featured picture shows the
   inaugural image of the MeerKAT array of 64 radio dishes just completed
   in South Africa. Spanning four times the angular size of the Moon (2
   degrees), the image is impressively vast, deep, and detailed. Many
   known sources are shown in clear detail, including many with a prefix
   of Sgr, since the Galactic Center is in the direction of the
   constellation Sagittarius. In our Galaxy's Center lies Sgr A, found
   here just to the right of the image center, which houses the Milky
   Way's central supermassive black hole. Other sources in the image are
   not as well understood, including the Arc, just to the left of Sgr A,
   and numerous filamentary threads. Goals for MeerKAT include searching
   for radio emission from neutral hydrogen emitted in a much younger
   universe and brief but distant radio flashes.

                      Tomorrow's picture: eclipse birds
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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