NASA has released a spectacular image of the Milky Way's violent "downtown" area.
It is a complex montage of 370 observations over the last 20 years by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. The montage depicts billions of stars and innumerable black holes in the heart or middle of the Milky Way.
For contrast, AP News reported, a radio telescope in South Africa contributed to the image as well.
University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Daniel Wang spent a year working on the spectacular image of the Milky Way while locked down at home because of the COVID pandemic.
What's seen in the montage is an energetic or violent ecosystem in the Milky Way's "downtown", said Wang, adding there are lots of black holes, supernova remnants and neuron stars in the mix.
Every X-ray dot or trait depicts a violent or energetic source, most of which are in the middle. The busy, highly violent galactic center is about 26,000 light years away.
Wang's work, Chandra large-scale mapping of the Galactic Centre: probing high-energy structures around the central molecular zone, is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society's June issue.
The Milky Way
As described in the Pennsylvania News Today, the Milky Way, at the galaxy's center, is a "supermassive black hole". This is an intergalactic phenomenon that's four million times the Sun's size, producing a cosmic region where extreme gravitational and magnetic occurrences take place.
"Downtown" space is just about 25,800 light-years away, a short hop in cosmic distances. A light year is the number of years that light travels, in this case to reach the Earth.
Through the Chandra X-ray Observatory Space Telescope and the Mealcut Radio Telescope, astronomers have captured the stunning image's "Orange, Green, Blue and Purple areas."
X-rays and other radio waves are exhibited in gray and lilac shades, an attractive display in no uncertain terms.
To add to the bright colors is a phenomenon that has been hiding in the galactic center.
Gas Streak Discovered
The bonus discovery is a gas streak of G zero dot 17-0 0.0.41, 20 light-years long, with a 200.2-light-year width.
It may be a bit strange but, astronomers explained, it is created when two lines of magnetic field in contrasting directions collide and brake before combining, reconstructing the magnetic field.
This is believed to take place when both lines transpire in great quantities. In the process, astronomers believe, this is the only way to explain why G zero dot is emitting X-rays.
Astronomers believe that examining the occurrence will provide them with a better insight of the physics of magnetic reconnection, not to mention, a better insight of this planet's own galactic center.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory Space Telescope, which was launched in 1999, according to Independent news, is in an oval orbit around Earth.
Related information is shown on SuspeciousObservers' YouTube video below:
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