Astronomers have obtained the closest glimpse yet of the supermassive black hole thought to lurk at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. They focused on radio emissions around the black hole over an area equal in width to the distance between the Earth and the Sun (1 astronomical unit).Zhi-Qiang Shen of the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China and colleagues in the US examined the radio source at the centre of our galaxy, known as Sagittarius A. They used a network of 10 radio telescopes spanning 5000 miles, known as the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA). The radio source is thought to mark the location of a titanic black hole that is guzzling surrounding light and matter. The radio emissions are thought to come from highly energised gas closely orbiting the black hole, rather than the black hole itself. The team studied an area 12 times bigger than the central black hole. Observations made in 2004 by a team at the University of California at Berkeley in 2004 focused on a region twice as large as the new study, though at a lower resolution. The difference between the two observations comes down to the radio wavelength used: the Berkeley team took their measurements at a wavelength of 7 millimetres, while the Shanghai group was able to get down to a wavelength of 3.5 mm. A shorter wavelength means less distortion of the radio waves from interstellar plasma, enabling astronomers to see in greater detail.
View: Full Article | Source: New Scientist Space
assuming that is the photograph, i think its beautiful..its like a box of jewelry...<3
