Overview
- An international ACES team stitched many ALMA observations into the array’s largest image, covering roughly 650 light-years across the Central Molecular Zone.
- The mosaic spans about the length of three full moons in the sky, tracing cold gas near Sagittarius A* in a nearby analogue of early, more chaotic galaxies.
- Researchers detected dozens of molecular species, including complex organics such as methanol, acetone and ethanol, enabling detailed chemical maps of the region.
- The data reveal widespread filaments, dense clouds, cavities and small-scale structures that channel gas into star-forming clumps and trace large-scale flows and turbulence.
- Initial findings appear in five papers accepted by MNRAS with a sixth in review, and an upcoming ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade is set to boost chemical sensitivity and finer-scale mapping.