A new, expansive view of the Milky Way reveals our Galaxy in unprecedented radio colour
Author: ICRAR
Astronomers from the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have created the largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way ever assembled.
This spectacular new image captures the Southern Hemisphere view of our Milky Way galaxy, revealing it across a wide range of radio wavelengths, or ‘colours’ of radio light.
It provides astronomers with new ways to explore the birth, evolution, and death of stars in our Galaxy.
Silvia Mantovanini, a PhD student at the Curtin University node of ICRAR, dedicated 18 months and and approximately 1M CPU hours to construct the image by using the supercomputers at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre to process and compile the data from two extensive surveys.
The surveys were conducted using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia.
These were the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA (GLEAM) and GLEAM-X (GLEAM eXtended) surveys, respectively conducted over 28 nights in 2013 and 2014, and 113 nights from 2018 to 2020.
The new image, which focuses on our own Galaxy, offers twice the resolution, ten times the sensitivity, and covers twice the area compared to the previous GLEAM image released in 2019.
Top: The GLEAM/GLEAM-X view of the Milky Way galaxy. Credit: S. Mantovanini & the GLEAM-X team
Bottom: The same area of the Milky Way in visible light. Credit: Axel Mellinger, milkywaysky.com
This significant improvement in resolution, sensitivity and sky coverage allows for a more detailed and comprehensive study of the Milky Way, providing astronomers with a wealth of new data and insights.
Further information can be found here: A new, expansive view of the Milky Way reveals our Galaxy in unprecedented radio colour – ICRAR
We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site.
