Astronomers have captured the central region of our Milky Way in a striking new image spanning more than 650 light-years. The observations provide a unique view of the cold gas —the raw material from which stars form— within the so-called Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way.
Obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), this rich dataset — the largest ALMA image to date — will allow astronomers to probe the lives of stars in the most extreme region of our galaxy, next to the supermassive black hole at its centre.
The ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey (ACES) is a “Large Program” survey of the ‘Central Molecular Zone’ (CMZ) – the inner-100 pc (300 light-years) of our Galaxy – with the ALMA telescope. The international ACES team is composed of over 160 scientists.
The scientific motivation for ACES is encapsulated in four key objectives:
- Determine the mechanisms driving mass flows as a function of size scale and location
- Disentangle the 3D geometry of the CMZ:
- Identify preferred locations for star formation
- Test star formation theories in extreme environments
The whole research is reported in a series of papers presenting the ACES data, to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (preprints here), and the data itself is available at the ALMA Science Portal
Wow! Are we peering into the very “soul” of our galaxy?
Mind the Post 