Science News Today
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Astronomy
  • Health and Medicine
  • Psychology
  • Earth Sciences
  • Archaeology
  • Technology
Science News Today
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Astronomy
  • Health and Medicine
  • Psychology
  • Earth Sciences
  • Archaeology
  • Technology
No Result
View All Result
Science News Today
No Result
View All Result
Home Astronomy

Earth-Sized Telescope Network Captures Sharpest Image of Distant Black Hole Jet

by Muhammad Tuhin
June 14, 2025
Two images of the galaxy J0123+3044, taken with the EVN telescopes with (right) and without (left) MeerKAT. The galaxy is located in the constellation Pisces, and the light from it has taken 9 billion years to reach us. The combination of the two telescopes allows scientists to understand the structure of the beam. The field of view shows an area of the sky covering 5 millionths of a degree, the same size as a 50-meter-wide area on the moon. Credit: JIVE, SARAO

Two images of the galaxy J0123+3044, taken with the EVN telescopes with (right) and without (left) MeerKAT. The galaxy is located in the constellation Pisces, and the light from it has taken 9 billion years to reach us. The combination of the two telescopes allows scientists to understand the structure of the beam. The field of view shows an area of the sky covering 5 millionths of a degree, the same size as a 50-meter-wide area on the moon. Credit: JIVE, SARAO

0
SHARES

On a rocky plateau in South Africa’s remote Karoo region, 64 radio dishes stand vigil beneath a wide, unpolluted sky. They belong to MeerKAT, Africa’s most advanced radio telescope, and they have just made scientific history.

You might also like

Ice Clouds Drift Inside the Milky Way’s Fiery Heart

Space Ice Hides Tiny Crystals That Could Rewrite the Origins of Life

Are We Living in a Giant Cosmic Bubble That Warps the Universe’s Expansion?

For the first time, MeerKAT has joined the ranks of the world’s largest and sharpest radio telescope network—the European VLBI Network (EVN)—to capture an image so detailed, so breathtakingly sharp, it reshapes how we see the universe. Together, these distant instruments have peered across the cosmic abyss and brought into focus a colossal jet of plasma erupting from a supermassive black hole in a faraway galaxy.

This is more than a photograph of deep space. It’s a milestone in international science. It’s a preview of the future of astronomy. And it’s a promise that when minds and machines unite across continents, even the universe itself becomes just a little more knowable.

An Interstellar Snapshot, Centuries in the Making

The target of this unprecedented gaze was galaxy J0123+3044, a luminous smudge in the night sky located hundreds of millions of light-years away. At its heart lies a black hole so massive it warps spacetime. From it bursts a narrow, brilliant jet of high-energy plasma—matter accelerated to near-light speed and flung out with terrifying force.

Such jets have fascinated astronomers for decades. They’re among the most extreme phenomena in nature, powered by the same invisible monsters that anchor galaxies. But they’re notoriously difficult to see in detail—unless you have a telescope the size of Earth.

That’s where very long-baseline interferometry, or VLBI, comes in.

By combining radio telescopes spread across the globe—from China to Sweden, Spain to South Korea—scientists create a single, virtual telescope that can measure details smaller than a pinhead seen from thousands of kilometers away. And now, for the first time, they’ve added MeerKAT to that powerful network.

The result: an image of the black hole’s jet with unprecedented clarity.

The Power of Many

“This is a big step forward,” said Jun Yang, an astronomer at Sweden’s Onsala Space Observatory. “MeerKAT, with its 64 antennas, is as sensitive as a single dish antenna with a diameter of 100 meters. That kind of sensitivity dramatically improves image quality.”

The implications stretch far beyond one black hole. This marks a crucial technical achievement—a proof of concept that southern hemisphere telescopes like MeerKAT can seamlessly integrate with northern instruments, expanding the reach and power of global astronomy.

And that matters a great deal for what comes next: the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world’s largest radio telescope, currently under construction in Australia and South Africa.

Paving the Way for the SKA Era

The SKA will be a game-changer for science. When complete, it will allow astronomers to see the universe with a thousand times more detail than ever before. They’ll study the formation of the first galaxies, trace the cosmic web of dark matter, and even test the limits of Einstein’s theories.

Both MeerKAT and EVN are considered precursors to the SKA, serving as testbeds for the technology and cooperation the next-generation observatory will demand.

Already, researchers are planning to link the SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa with other global arrays—exactly as MeerKAT has just done.

What this recent success shows is that such cooperation isn’t just possible—it’s productive, even transformative. The system works. The sky is open.

Global Science, Local Roots

Built and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), MeerKAT was inaugurated in 2018 and quickly gained recognition for its high sensitivity and imaging power. Its dishes—each 13.5 meters across—are arranged over an 8-kilometer area in the quiet desert of the Karoo, far from radio interference.

But MeerKAT is more than a scientific instrument. It’s a national symbol of innovation and global leadership in astronomy. It’s also a driver of local development, offering training, education, and employment in surrounding communities.

Now, as it joins the EVN’s elite ranks, it also takes a central role in the planet-wide effort to understand the cosmos.

The EVN, operated by the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE), connects radio telescopes across Europe, Asia, and now Africa, creating a baseline of up to 9,000 kilometers. By synchronizing observations with atomic precision, these facilities effectively become a single, Earth-sized dish—capable of capturing the faintest whispers of radio waves from the farthest reaches of the universe.

For the recent observation of galaxy J0123+3044, the array included antennas from China, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Sweden—as well as South Africa’s Hartebeesthoek Radio Observatory. And at the heart of it all, for the first time, was MeerKAT.

A New Kind of Cosmic Vision

This unprecedented collaboration isn’t just about technical prowess. It’s about storytelling on a cosmic scale—about understanding how galaxies evolve, how black holes shape their environments, and how the universe became what it is today.

The addition of MeerKAT made the difference between a fuzzy outline and a crisp portrait. It allowed researchers to see the fine structure of the black hole jet in galaxy J0123+3044—structures that were previously invisible. These details matter. They help scientists understand the physics of plasma, the dynamics of black hole spin, and even the role such jets play in regulating star formation.

In short, it’s another piece of the grand puzzle of existence, now visible because humanity dared to connect its instruments, its scientists, and its skies.

The Sky Is No Longer the Limit

This isn’t just about astronomy. It’s about what happens when nations choose collaboration over competition, when science becomes a shared endeavor. It’s about building telescopes that span continents and knowledge that spans generations.

Sweden is on the verge of becoming a full member of the SKA Observatory, joining a global collaboration of countries committed to building and operating the world’s most advanced radio telescopes. That collaboration, now proven by MeerKAT’s successful integration with the EVN, is more than a scientific achievement—it’s a signal that the future of exploration is planetary.

The stars may be billions of light-years away. But with each new connection—from Karoo to Onsala, from Manchester to Madrid—we draw just a little closer to understanding our place in the vast, unfolding story of the universe.

TweetShareSharePinShare

Recommended For You

Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/P.Vosteen
Astronomy

Ice Clouds Drift Inside the Milky Way’s Fiery Heart

July 8, 2025
Visual representation of the structure of low-density amorphous ice. Many tiny crystallites (white) are concealed in the amorphous material (blue). Credit: Michael B Davies, UCL and University of Cambridge
Astronomy

Space Ice Hides Tiny Crystals That Could Rewrite the Origins of Life

July 8, 2025
If we are located in a region with below-average density such as the green dot, then matter would flow away from us due to stronger gravity from the surrounding denser regions, as shown by the red arrows. Credit: Moritz Haslbauer and Zarija Lukic
Astronomy

Are We Living in a Giant Cosmic Bubble That Warps the Universe’s Expansion?

July 8, 2025
Light curve of the variable star Grigoriev 1 from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) project. Green circles—observations in g filter, red diamonds—in r filter. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2507.01005
Astronomy

Newly Discovered “Grigoriev 1” Star Unveils a Cosmic Eclipse Drama in Pegasus

July 7, 2025
An e-MERLIN map showing the tilted disk structure around the young star DG Tauri where pebble-sized clumps are beginning to form. Its long axis is southeast to northwest (lower left to upper right). Emission from an outflow of material from the central star is also seen in the northeast  and southwest directions. Credit: Hesterly, Drabek-Maunder, Greaves, Richards, et al/CC BY 4.0
Astronomy

Pebbles in Space Reveal How New Worlds Are Born

July 7, 2025
Artistic representation of a dark dwarf. Credit: Sissa Medialab
Astronomy

Hidden Stars Could Unlock the Secrets of Dark Matter

July 7, 2025
Astronomy

The Universe May Meet Its End in a Cosmic “Big Crunch,” New Study Predicts

July 6, 2025
Unfolded energy spectra of SXP31.0. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2506.19601
Astronomy

The Star That Defies Physics Pulses with Mysterious Cosmic Rhythm

July 4, 2025
Just 15 minutes after its closest approach to Pluto on July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft looked back toward the sun and captured this near-sunset view of the rugged, icy mountains and flat ice plains extending to Pluto's horizon. The smooth expanse of the informally named icy plain Sputnik Planum (right) is flanked to the west (left) by rugged mountains up to 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) high, including the informally named Norgay Montes in the foreground and Hillary Montes on the skyline. To the right, east of Sputnik, rougher terrain is cut by apparent glaciers. The backlighting highlights more than a dozen layers of haze in Pluto's tenuous but distended atmosphere. The image was taken from a distance of 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) to Pluto; the scene is 780 miles (1,250 kilometers) wide. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Astronomy

A Spacecraft Just Took a Celestial Selfie That Proved a 200-Year-Old Theory

July 4, 2025
Next Post
The morphogenetical topology optimization method shapes the scattering inclusions, shown as gray material. When the ARE is excited by monopolar source emitting broad-band white noise, the radiated sound creates an acoustic rainbow. The source is positioned at the center of the emitter (illustrated using white light) and driven with equal power at all frequencies from 7,600 to 12,800 Hz. The experimentally measured acoustic output (far field) is mapped to the visible spectrum of light by its magnitude and frequency content in the full 360° surrounding the ARE. Credit: Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads7497

Scientists Build a Device That Splits Sound into a Rainbow

The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere. Credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State.

Mysterious Cosmic Signal Detected in Antarctica Defies Known Physics

To calculate the stability of a solid whose atoms don't repeat in a sequence, the researchers simulated scoops of quasicrystal that were randomly sampled out of a larger block. The energy within each nanoparticle can be calculated using quantum mechanics because the particle has defined boundaries. Repeating the calculations over a range of scoop sizes allows the researchers to extrapolate their energy calculations to the bulk quasicrystal. Credit: Woohyeon Baek, Sun Research Group, University of Michigan.

Scientists Unlock the Hidden Order of Quasicrystals Once Thought Impossible

Legal

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Disclaimer
  • Editorial Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions

© 2025 Science News Today. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Astronomy
  • Health and Medicine
  • Psychology
  • Earth Sciences
  • Archaeology
  • Technology

© 2025 Science News Today. All rights reserved.

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.