Indonesiainside.id, Jakarta – Astronomers have captured the sharpest photos ever seen of galaxies in outer space.
The photos have a much higher resolution than normal conditions and reveal the workings of the galaxy in detail that has not been revealed so far.
Many of these photos can provide insight into the role of black holes in the formation of stars and planets.
Researchers say the photos will change our understanding of how galaxies evolve.
The photos were created from radio waves emitted by the galaxy.
Researchers often study radio waves from astronomical objects rather than the shape of the light they emit, because it allows them to see things obscured by Earth’s atmosphere or dust and gas in distant galaxies.
Many areas of space are dark to our eyes, but actually glow brightly in the radio waves they emit.
This allows astronomers to peer into star-forming regions or into the heart of galaxies.
What’s new is that the research team has dramatically increased the radio image resolution by linking together more than 70,000 tiny antennas spread over nine European countries.
Radio signals were picked up by 70,000 one-meter-high antennas in nine European countries.
Combining radio signals from so many antennas is not an easy process.
The team has spent six years developing a completely new way to collect the signal from each antenna, digitize it, send it to a central processor.
Then, combine all the data into pictures that are not only very interesting scientifically but also very interesting to look at.
This achievement is a tour de force technique and is led by Dr Leah Morabito from Durham University, England.
“To work on the data took so long, and to finally get photos like that and be able to be the first to see what it looks like, it’s just incredible,” he told BBC News.
“I walked around with a big smile on my face for the rest of the day, because I felt so proud that I was able to make these pictures and to be able to see things that no one else had seen before.”
The photo above was made by team member Dr Morabito. The image shows a barely visible galaxy amid jets of orange matter, glowing outward from both sides, each much larger than the galaxy itself.
The emission is caused by the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy – an object whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape its suction.
Normally these holes suck in matter – but the inward pull also creates a force around the black hole that causes the material to be spewed out, far into space.
Such a beam has been observed before – but astronomers have obtained new scientific information from a dark band in the beam to the right, which has never been seen before.
This, astronomers believe, represents the black hole’s period of relative inactivity – when it ejected less matter.
The image therefore provided the research team with insight into the black hole’s “sleep cycle”.
The image above shows two galaxies colliding. The bright spot on the left is caused by a stellar explosion – creating what is effectively called a galactic wind – blowing dust and gas away from it.
Above and below it is a beam of material emitted by black holes in it.
Usually such early galaxies cannot be studied in detail.
But now, for the first time, astronomers have seen the structure of one at radio frequencies that provides important scientific information about how black holes interact with their surroundings.
The images reveal that galaxies are more than just a collection of stars.
They are dynamic solar and planetary factories, powered by black holes, according to Dr Neal Jackson, of the University of Manchester.
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