Radio Portrait of the Milky Way. Credit: Silvia Mantovanini (ICRAR/Curtin)/GLEAM-X Team
A new radio portrait of the Milky Way’s center, captured by the Murchison Widefield Array, reveals fresh details about the structure of our galaxy’s plane.
In this image, the galaxy is shown in radio colors: red marks the lowest frequencies, green the mid-range, and blue the highest. Each dot represents a galaxy, with about 300,000 radio galaxies detected in the GLEAM survey.
Radio Portrait of the Milky Way. Credit: Silvia Mantovanini (ICRAR/Curtin)/GLEAM-X Team
The orange glow comes from the remnants of exploded stars—these shine brightest at lower frequencies. In contrast, star-forming regions appear in blue, showing where new stars are being born.
These colors help astronomers quickly distinguish the different physical features that make up our galaxy.
The study was published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
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