The image of astronomers does not show stars - but 25,000 black holes

The image of astronomers does not show stars – but 25,000 black holes

No, you do not see the starry sky. These are very large black holes, captured in a picture with the help of the Swedish.

Black holes are hard to spot – but they can be found Loafer. International Project The world’s largest radio telescope, which today has about 20,000 integrated antennas. They are stationed at 52 locations in nine European countries, including Sweden Onsala Space Laboratory.

The name Loafer refers to the low frequency band and is the only network that can produce high resolution images at frequencies below 100 MHz. The goal is to capture the entire northern galaxy using very low frequencies. Images covering four percent of the LOFAR LBA Sky Survey (LoLSS) have now been released. It writes Leiden University.

Main station for lobster in Nordic countries. Photo: Astron

After many years of work, this project provides a very detailed map of the date of the most detailed black holes, the mass of which is millions or billions of times larger than our Sun.

Algorithms compensate for interruptions every four seconds

In total, there are 25,000 active black holes, each located in its own galaxy. The radio waves that can see them do not come from black holes, but from what they communicate with.

read more: Researcher: “I can detect ten supernovae a day”

New technology must be developed to convert radio signals into images. The ionosphere disturbs telescopes on Earth, and at ultra-low frequencies this problem is particularly large. The layer of free electrons distorts the signals, but the team solved the problem by allowing supercomputers to run mechanisms that compensate for atmospheric disturbances – every four seconds.

Within 256 hours of Lofer making his observations, numerous corrections were made. One positive side effect is that astronomers have also been able to use data from LoLSS to study the neighboring region. Radio waves below 50 MHz are also expected to reveal secrets about other astronomical objects.

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