This image produced from MeerKAT data shows our galaxy (the Milky Way) in unprecedented detail; it shows radio bubbles, the galaxy’s four-million solar mass supermassive black hole, and numerous thin, magnetised radio filaments.
An artist’s impression of the system assuming that the massive companion star is a black hole. The brightest background star is its orbital companion, the radio pulsar PSR J0514-4002E. The two stars are separated by 8 million km and circle each other every 7 days. Credit: Daniëlle Futselaar (artsource.nl)
The 49ers, 49 new galaxies detected by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, shown as colored contours, with redder colors indicating more distant gas and bluer colors showing closer gas. (Image credit: ICRAR)
This image shows the M83 galaxy, colour coded according to the velocity of the gas in each location. From this we can see that not all of the galaxy is moving at the same speed. Astronomers can use this information to calculate the mass of this galaxy. There are basically only seven colours in this image, whereas if we had finer channels we would be able to see finer details on how the gas is moving and interacting with the rest of the galaxy. Image: Sean Passmoor/SARAO
The newly discovered giant radio galaxy ‘Inkathazo’. The glowing plasma jets, as seen by the MeerKAT telescope, are shown in red and yellow. The starlight from other surrounding galaxies can be seen in the background. Credit: K.K.L Charlton (UCT), MeerKAT, HSC, CARTA, IDIA.
A spectral age map of ‘Inkathazo’. Cyan and green show younger plasma, while purple indicates older plasma. Credit: K.K.L Charlton (UCT), MeerKAT, HSC, CARTA, IDIA.
Regular observations of 80 millisecond pulsars, (shown here as bright point sources emitting white radio beams) over the last 5 years with MeerKAT, have revealed evidence for a gravitational wave background. These ripples in spacetime are likely caused by a population of inspiraling supermassive black holes that reside at the heart of massive galaxies (depicted as pink spirals). Image credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology and South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
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Overview
NRF/SARAO is leading South Africa’s involvement in the SKA on behalf of the Department of Science, Technology & Innovation.
