The Galactic Plane: Radio Versus Visible
What does the Milky Way look like in radio waves?
To better find out,
GLEAM surveyed the
central band of our galaxy in
high resolution radio light as imaged by the
Murchison Widefield Array in
Australia.
As the
featured video slowly scrolls,
radio light (71 - 231 MHz) is seen on the left
and visible light -- from the same field -- on the right.
Differences are so great because most objects glow differently in
radio and
visible light,
and because visible light is stopped by nearby interstellar dust.
These differences are
particularly apparent in the direction
toward the
center of our galaxy,
seen about a third of the way through.
Among the many
features that appear in the radio, bright red patches are usually
supernova remnants of exploded stars,
while areas colored blue are
stellar nurseries filled with bright young stars.