Sagittarius A* tagged posts

Sagittarius A*. This image was taken with NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Credit: Public domain

A team of researchers from around the world is getting ready to create what might be the first image of a black hole. The project is the result of collaboration between teams manning radio receivers around the world and a team at MIT that will assemble the data from the other teams and hopefully create an image. The project has been ongoing for ~20 years as members have sought to piece together the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT).

Each of the 12 participating radio receiving teams will use equipment that has been installed for the project to record data received at a wavelength of 230GHz during April 5 through the 14th...

Artist’s rendition of the Odin spacecraft in orbit. Credit: SNSB

Completing its 16th year in orbit, a small Swedish astrophysics and aeronomy satellite named “Odin” has proven that it is still capable of carrying out important observations of space. The spacecraft has lately observed ammonia (NH3) emissions from an astronomical radio source known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A* for short) at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Odin was launched on February 20, 2001 with the aim of studying the depletion of the ozone layer in the atmosphere and searching for water and oxygen in interstellar space. With a mass of about 250 kg, the spacecraft has dimensions of 2.0 x 1.1 meters (3.8 meters when fully deployed in orbit). The satellite is equipped with an advanced radiometer using a 1...