Credit: Nickolas Pingel et al.
A stunning image captured by researchers at The Australian National UniversityFounded in 1946, the Australian National University (ANU) is a national research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and institutes.”>Australian National University (ANU) and Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, shows one of the Milky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth, and is named for its appearance from Earth. It is a barred spiral galaxy that contains an estimated 100-400 billion stars and has a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years.”>Milky Way’s closest neighbors in new detail.
Lead author of the study, Dr. Nickolas Pingel, says it is the clearest ever picture of hydrogen emitted from the Small Magellanic Cloud.
“The clarity of this image is unprecedented,” he said.
“We’re able to see all of the small-scale structures for the first time. It’s an important step in understanding the role hydrogen plays in the evolution of galaxies.
“For example, you can see holes within the gas. This shows us that hydrogen interacts with supernovae.”
This study focused on the Small Magellanic Cloud – the nearest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
The team used CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope and high-tech software to capture and process 100 hours of data.
Now they hope to take the project a step further.
“This specific image was part of a pilot survey,” Dr. Pingel said.
“Over the next year we are going to collect more observations. Eventually, we’ll be able to connect them and make a giant mosaic which will show how this galaxy connects to its nearby neighbors.”
The study has been published online.
Reference: “GASKAP-HI Pilot Survey Science I: ASKAP Zoom Observations of HI Emission in the Small Magellanic Cloud” by N. M. Pingel, J. Dempsey, N. M. McClure-Griffiths, J. M. Dickey, K. E. Jameson, H. Arce, G. Anglada, J. Bland-Hawthorn, S. L. Breen, F. Buckland-Willis, S. E. Clark, J. R. Dawson, H. Dénes, E. M. Di Teodoro, B.-Q. For, Tyler J. Foster, J. F. Gómez, H. Imai, G. Joncas, C.-G. Kim, M.-Y. Lee, C. Lynn, D. Leahy, Y. K. Ma, A. Marchal, D. McConnell, M.-A. Miville-Deschênes, V. A. Moss, C. E. Murray, D. Nidever, J. Peek, S. Stanimirović, L. Staveley-Smith, T. Tepper-Garcia, C. D. Tremblay, L. Uscanga, J. Th. van Loon, E. Vázquez-Semadeni, J. R. Allison, C. S. Anderson, Lewis Ball, M. Bell, D. C.-J. Bock, J. Bunton, F. R. Cooray, T. Cornwell, B. S. Koribalski, N. Gupta, D. B. Hayman, L. Harvey-Smith, K. Lee-Waddell, A. Ng, C. J. Phillips, M. Voronkov, T. Westmeier and M. T. Whiting, 9 November 2021, Astrophysics > Astrophysics of Galaxies.
arXiv:2111.05339
The project is part of the Galactic ASKAP (GASKAP) Survey, one of several priority projects to be undertaken with the ASKAP radio telescope. ASKAP is a radio telescope located in Western Australia. It has 36 dish antennas which work together as one telescope and can generate more raw data at a faster rate than Australia’s entire internet traffic.
CSIRO acknowledges the Wajarri Yamatji as the traditional owners of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site where ASKAP is located.
Source: SciTechDaily
