The SKA Observatory (SKAO) has released the first image from an early working version of the SKA-Low telescope, currently under construction on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia. Using just 1,024 of the planned 131,072 antennas, this marks an exciting milestone in the development of the world’s most powerful radio observatory. SKA-Low is one of two telescopes being built by SKAO, co-hosted in Australia and South Africa on behalf of its member states and the global community.

The image captures about 25 square degrees of sky—roughly the size of 100 full Moons—revealing around 85 of the brightest known galaxies, all containing supermassive black holes. These galaxies, billions of light years away, shine in radio light as gas spirals around their black holes, emitting energy in X-rays and radio waves. SKA-Low detects these signals, which have traveled across the cosmos to reach Earth. At the centre of the image is one of the rare galaxies expelling jets of matter visible in both optical and radio light.

When complete, SKA-Low will reveal far more, detecting over 600,000 galaxies in the same frame. This first glimpse is just the beginning of the telescope’s journey to unlocking the deepest mysteries of the Universe.

The press release with the first image using AA0.5 (and video) can be found here.