A new image of the heart of the Milky Way galaxy reveals a mysterious structure we've never seen before.
Taken using the ultra-sensitive MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, the image shows nearly 1,000 strands of magnetic filament measuring up to 150 light-years long, in a very neat and orderly structure.
The researchers say the strands of this filament are 10 times the number of strands previously known, adding to important statistical data that could eventually help understand its nature, an enigma since its discovery in the 1980s.
"We have been studying individual filaments for a long time with myopic vision," said astrophysicist Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University, who originally discovered the filaments.
"Now, we finally see the big picture, a panoramic view filled with many filaments. Just examining a few filaments makes it difficult to draw any real conclusions about what they are and where they come from. This was a turning point in advancing our understanding of these structures."
Even though it is "only" about 25,000 light years away (not very cosmically far), the center of the Milky Way galaxy is very difficult to see. This area is shrouded in a dense cloud of dust and gas that blocks several wavelengths of light, including optical range. But we can use technology to turn our vision into invisible wavelengths.
MeerKAT, operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), is one of the most advanced radio telescopes in the world. Since opening in 2016, the telescope has provided us with an unprecedented array of insights into the galactic center.
Photo: Northwestern University
The latest images are stunning, built on 200 hours of observational data, collected over three years, and show the radio wavelength region with unparalleled clarity and depth.
Yusef-Zadeh and his team then used the technique to remove the background from the image, revealing magnetic strings distributed in clusters around the center of the galaxy.
It's not clear how they appeared, but what is clear is that these magnetic strings contain cosmic ray electrons, spinning in magnetic field filaments near the speed of light.
The new images have allowed researchers to know more about the strands, bringing us one step closer to understanding them.
In 2019, previous MeerKAT data revealed the presence of giant radio bubbles extending above and below the galactic plane, apart from the gamma-ray Fermi bubble discovered in 2010. It is possible that filaments are associated with these radio bubbles, but this possibility needs to be explored further. future papers.