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  Getting a sharper view of Sgr A*Jan 25, 2019 1:22 AM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:A reader tipped me off to the supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* at the center of our galaxy making the news again! Astronomers are working on imaging the black hole's event horizon—a tricky task considering that it's 26,000 light years away and surrounded by thousands of light years of gas and dust. But they're getting closer, and in the bottom half of the graphic at the top of this article you can see what they're now able to pick up from the black hole: a fairly condensed emission of radio waves in a slightly elliptical blob overlapping the hole's location.
 
They were able to get this sharper view thanks to adding the powerful ALMA radio telescope array in Chile to the hemisphere-spanning radio telescope network working on piercing those many light years of gas and dust to see A*. They'll need to increase their resolving power even further to achieve that, but when they do, well, that'll be somethin'.
 
 
 
 
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