Madrid. The galactic plane of the Milky Way has been studied in the most detail to date because to combined observations from the Australian observatories Ashtray and Parkes.
Using Parkes, a team of radio astronomers led by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics took pictures of a significant chunk of our galaxy’s disk that measured roughly 6-7 degrees, or 12–14 full moons, as part of the Pegasus project. For the EMU project run by Macquarie University of Australia, this image was blended with another made with Ashtray to create a stunning image.
The image depicts an area with broad emission caused by dying celestial objects known as supernova remnants, hydrogen gas filling the space between stars, and hot bubbles of ionized hydrogen gas related to star formation. Since there is little radio emission in the light, the stars are not visible. Only radio telescopes can see the specifics of star birth and death in this image of our galaxy.
The information will enable us to understand the evolution of magnetic forces in the universe and map the magnetic forces within our Milky Way Galaxy.
With over 2,100 hours of observation, Pegasus plans to use Parkes to map the whole southern sky at 700–1440 megahertz. Within the following two years, the initiative hopes to cover the entire southern sky after just finishing the pilot analyses.
clouds of gas, dust, and stars
The galactic plane, where the solar system is located, is observed by surveys like Pegasus; it contains a large number of stars, countless dust and gas clouds, as well as a significant amount of dark matter. Radio astronomers’ primary objective has always been to study the Milky Way’s equator. However, it is challenging to produce photos that are free of artifacts due to the galaxy’s diffuse emission.
The first observation has outstanding image quality. The ultimate results will be an unprecedented glimpse of practically the entire Milky Way, about a hundred times larger than this initial image but achieving the same degree of resolution and sensitivity, according to Andrew Hopkins, director of the EMU project from Macquarie University.