Tokyo, 27 December, /AJMEDIA/
The Small Magellanic Cloud is located about 210,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Tucana.
It has a complex structure due to gravitational interaction with the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The new image of the Small Magellanic Cloud was captured as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey.
“It is the clearest ever picture of hydrogen emitted from the Small Magellanic Cloud,” said Dr. Nickolas Pingel, an astronomer with the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University.
“The clarity of this image is unprecedented,” he added.
Dr. Pingel and colleagues used data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) at the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory and the 64-m Parkes single dish telescope (Murriyang).
“We’re able to see all of the small-scale structures for the first time,” Dr. Pingel said.
“It’s an important step in understanding the role hydrogen plays in the evolution of galaxies.”
“For example, you can see holes within the gas.”
“This shows us that hydrogen interacts with supernovae.”
Now the researchers hope to take the project a step further.
“This specific image was part of a pilot survey,” Dr. Pingel said.
“Over the next year we are going to collect more observations.”
“Eventually we’ll be able to connect them and make a giant mosaic which will show how this galaxy connects to its nearby neighbors.”
The team’s paper will appear in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
