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Astronomers Unveil Largest Low-Frequency Radio Color Image of the Milky Way

The peer-reviewed PASA release makes a public dataset available alongside a catalog of about 98,000 sources.

Overview

  • Built from GLEAM and higher-resolution GLEAM-X surveys with the Murchison Widefield Array, the mosaic delivers roughly twice the resolution, ten times the sensitivity, and twice the area of the 2019 map.
  • The image presents the first published low-frequency view of the entire Southern Galactic Plane, revealing the galaxy across 72–231 MHz in radio "colors."
  • Processing took 18 months on Pawsey supercomputers, using advanced imaging and ionospheric-correction techniques to align and stack thousands of observations.
  • The radio colors separate emission types, making supernova remnants stand out from star-forming HII regions and aiding studies of pulsars and large-scale galactic structure.
  • The team notes the forthcoming SKA-Low in Australia is expected to surpass this map in sensitivity and resolution within the next decade.