Categories: AstronomyNews

The Highest-Resolution Image Ever Seen in Astronomy

What do you get when you combine 15 radio telescopes on Earth and one in space? You get an enormous “virtual telescope” that is 63,000 miles across. And when you point it at a distant black hole, you get the highest resolution image every seen in astronomy.

Although it looks just like a big green blob, it’s actually an enormously energetic jet of matter streaming out of a black hole. And this black hole is 900 million light years away.

As reported at Popular Science, it required an array of 15 radio telescopes on Earth, and the Russian space telescope Spektr-R, to capture the image. This technique—called interferometry—is like creating a telescope that is 63,000 miles across. The detail it provides is like seeing a 50 cent coin on the Moon.

For perspective, the object in the image is 186 billion miles long, at minimum, and would just barely fit in the Oort Cloud.

The jet at the heart of BL Lacertae, with the Oort Cloud and Alpha Centauri for comparison. Image: Gomez et. al., A Lobanov, NRAO.
Evan Gough

Recent Posts

Scaling Propellant Production on Mars is Hard

Putting humans on Mars has been one of NASA's driving missions for years, but they…

3 hours ago

Is an ‘Off-Year’ Leonid Outburst in the Cards For November?

There are good reasons to keep an eye on the Leonid meteors this year.

4 hours ago

Reaction Engines Goes Into Bankruptcy, Taking the Hypersonic SABRE Engine With it

Rarely does something get developed which is a real game changer in space exploration. One…

9 hours ago

Project Hyperion is Seeking Ideas for Building Humanity’s First Generation Ship

The dream of traversing the depths of space and planting the seed of human civilization…

18 hours ago

How Did Supermassive Black Holes Get So Big, So Early? They Might Have Had a Head Start

Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) can have billions of solar masses, and observational evidence suggests that…

23 hours ago

A Mission to Triton and Neptune Would Unlock Their Mysteries

A town in the Austrian Alps might not seem like the most conducive place to…

1 day ago