Astronomers observing the sky with the South African MeerKAT radio telescope have published an image of radio radiation emitted by the distant elliptical galaxy IC 4296.
image made with It shows two streams of radio radiation emitted from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole in the center of IC 4296. Both jets are in opposite directions and are the result of matter falling on a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
The radio rays visible in the image above are as red and orange lines that end in broad lobes that are formed as a result of the interaction of the plane with the intergalactic medium.
If you have seen our country before galaxyAnd the Milky Way, as a huge body, it is really small compared to these jets. The Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across and contains up to 400 billion stars. However, the jets from IC 4296 are only a million light-years away from the galaxy itself.
It was only thanks to the exceptional resolution of the MeerKAT radio telescope that the fine fibers and details inside aircraft could only be seen. At the same time, this is just a precursor to the still nascent SKA telescope, of which MeerKAT is only a small component. Scientists anticipate that once released, SKA will revolutionize our understanding of cosmic sources of radio radiation.
Simply put, it will be a network of radio telescopes, the total area of which is one square kilometer. SKA’s component radio telescopes will be deployed in South Africa and Australia. Due to numerous delays, the first observations with SKA are now scheduled for 2027.
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