An international team of astronomers has published the most detailed photograph ever taken of the Milky Way's central region. The image, obtained using the ALMA telescope, covers an area over 650 light-years wide. It focuses on dense clouds of cold gas surrounding the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. This discovery sheds new light on star formation processes under the extreme conditions at the very heart of our galaxy.
Record-breaking image resolution
The ALMA telescope captured an area 650 light-years wide with unprecedented precision in the millimeter band.
Secrets of the black hole
The image shows how the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* interacts with the surrounding cold gas and star-forming processes.
Chemical composition analysis
Researchers discovered traces of complex gas molecules, allowing for a better understanding of the chemical evolution of the Milky Way's heart.
An international collaboration of astronomers has produced the most detailed radio map ever created of our galaxy's heart. Using the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) telescope network located in Chile's Atacama Desert, scientists recorded radiation emitted by cold interstellar gas. This image reveals a gigantic network of gas structures stretching over 650 light-years around the galactic center. This is a key region where the gravitational dominance of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* influences the entire surroundings, shaping the Milky Way's evolution. The new map allows researchers to peer deep into dense dust clouds that typically block visible light, preventing observations with traditional optical telescopes. Thanks to ALMA's precision, complex twists and filaments of gas, which serve as building blocks for new stars, have been identified. Analysis of the chemical composition of these areas reveals the presence of complex organic molecules, suggesting that conditions favoring the formation of life precursors may be common even in such a turbulent environment. Astronomers note unusual matter behavior, which under the influence of strong magnetic fields and radiation from the vicinity of the black hole, forms structures hitherto unseen in other parts of the galaxy. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy, approximately 13.6 billion years old. Its central region remained a mystery for decades due to vast amounts of cosmic dust that effectively obscure the view in the visible spectrum.This research is fundamental for understanding the so-called star formation paradox in the galactic center. Despite the enormous amount of available gas, the birth rate of new suns there is significantly lower than predicted by standard physical models. The new data suggests that extreme turbulence and high gas temperatures near Sagittarius A* may inhibit gravitational collapse processes of clouds. The published image is not only a technological triumph but also an invaluable data source for theorists attempting to reconstruct the Milky Way's evolutionary history from its formation after the Big Bang. 650 — light-years is the size of the photographed area at the galaxy's centerThis project was carried out over several years, requiring immense computing power to process terabytes of raw data transmitted from the Chilean Andes. The final image presents the galaxy in a previously inaccessible way, combining the precision of radio measurements with advanced visualization of temperature and matter density distribution. The next step for the research team will be analyzing individual gas filaments to determine which of them are actually capable of initiating the process of creating new planetary systems.