NASA Spotlight: The “heart” of the Milky Way shines brightly in today’s astrophoto

The photo presented today by NASA features bright, elongated arcs. They are actually radio emissions from different sources in the center of the Milky Way.

A series of long, curved structures located near the center of the milky wayappear in the photo highlighted by NASA this Monday (3) on the website Astronomy Picture of the day. There lie the long parallel rays visible in radio wavelengths: the Radio Arc of the galactic center.

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The Radio Arc is connected to the center of the Milky Way by twisted filaments called “arcs”. In the photo, the luminous bubble that surrounds it Sagittarius A* (or “Sagittarius A*”, in Portuguese), the supermassive black hole of our galaxy.

In the image there is an elongated emission coming from the large bubble present in the center of the Milky Way, which appears to be crossed by the Arc and its various filaments. This photo is only part of an image captured from South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO)released last year.

It reveals the center of the Milky Way and radio emissions from various phenomena such as exploding stars, stellar nurseries and the region surrounding Sagittarius A*. The SARAO image also shows structures nearly 100 light-years long, the origin of which is still unknown.

What is at the center of the Milky Way?

The Milky Way is a spiral galaxywhich has different arms: our Solar System is in the arm of orion, For example. The disk of our galaxy spans about 100,000 light-years and rotates around the center. There, in a region about 10,000 light-years across, the spiral structure becomes a bulge of stars.

The “heart” of the Milky Way – the point around which the rest of our galaxy revolves – is about 24,000 light-years away, towards the constellation Sagittarius. There is so much interstellar dust that it prevents observations in visible light, but not in wavelengths such as infrared, X-rays and radio waves, as in the case of the image above.

That’s where the black hole is Sagittarius A*with 4.3 million times the mass of the Sun. When compared with other objects of its kind, it turns out to be a relatively “peaceful” black hole, which has not fed on matter for a long time – but, even so, gobbles up “snacks occasional gas and dust.

Source: APOD

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Rose

Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.