Taking a snapshot of the galactic centre
This stunning image taken by MeerKAT gives us a detailed look at the Milky Way’s central region
1 Different colours
This mosaic of 20 images shows radio emissions from the centre of the Milky Way. The colours indicate the signal’s strength, with red and orange being strongest and the weakest being light grey.
2 Galactic plane
The main structure you can see is the bright galactic plane, running horizontally and packed with stars.
3 Supernova remnant
The MeerKAT telescope array picked up on many different structures, including this supernova remnant – the shell left behind when a massive star explodes.
4Supermassive black hole
This is the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* – a bright and compact astronomical radio source that’s 4 million times the mass of our Sun.
5 Magnetic filaments
One of the most exciting aspects of this image is the sheer number of magnetic filaments running through it.