Astronomers exploring the Milky Way have published an amazing image of the center of our galaxy that looks more like an abstractionist artist’s painting. It was obtained with the MeerKAT and James Webb (JWST) telescopes.
The center of the Milky Way is the most dynamic region of our cosmic home. It contains Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole whose mass is four million times that of the Sun. A few hundred light-years away is a region called Sagittarius C. It is a region of active star formation containing about half a million luminaries, many of which are still in the growth phase.
Telescopes operating in the optical range are unable to study this region because of dust clouds that absorb visible light. Fortunately, dust allows infrared and radio waves to pass through. In 2023, the JWST telescope studied Sagittarius C, detecting emissions from forming protostars and allowing scientists to better understand the effects of strong magnetic fields on interstellar gas and the life cycle of stars.
Now researchers have engaged MeerKAT to peer into the center of the Milky Way. The published image paints a very compelling picture of a chaotic core consisting of painterly bubbles of various sizes, clouds and vertical streaks that look like the brush strokes of an artist.
At the center of the MeerKAT image, the region surrounding the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* blazes brightly. The huge vertical filamentary structures repeat those captured on a smaller scale by JWST in the blue-green hydrogen cloud Sagittarius C (its image is shown in the inset). The bubbles correspond to the remnants of supernovae that exploded over thousands of light-years. The width of the area captured by MeerKAT is a thousand light-years. By comparison, the JWST image covers an area of 44 light-years.
Astronomers believe that strong magnetic fields at the heart of the galaxy form the filaments seen by MeerKAT and JWST. They may also play a role in suppressing star formation in this region. Although Sagittarius C contains a rich cloud of star-making material, the star formation rate is not as high as expected. According to scientists, the magnetic fields may be strong enough to resist the gravity that normally causes dense clouds of gas and dust to collapse and form stars.
According to Esawebb
