See the heart of the Milky Way as it's never been captured before

We now have a better window than ever into the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and it’s filled with exploded stars, magnetic streaks, and a giant black hole. On January 26, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) released images of the heart of the Milky Way taken using its radio telescope, MeerKAT. MeerKAT captures radio waves using 64 antennae spread over almost five miles, and it’s the most sensitive telescope of its kind. A radio telescope like MeerKAT was necessary to take these images because only radio waves can penetrate through the dust between Earth and the center of our galaxy.

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