World's Most Complex Radio Telescope Snaps Stunning 1st Photo of the Cosmos

That is indeed non-obvious, thanks for pointing it out.

Those pictures are "false" color and detail. They in no way represent what you would see with your eyes if you were standing right in front of the object. Some of them are even manipulated by artists that add things to them.

What you are seeing are a subset of radio waves being represented as human vision color in a non-linear way with additional artistic details.

The article does mention that only 19 of the planned 66 are on-line yet. I think considering that, it really is a pretty stunning photo.

It is in no way comparable to the ultra deep field. That's optical. This is sub-millimetre (the region between infra-red and microwave). You see entirely different things, and use 'em for entirely different purposes. It's like saying that a Formula 1 car isn't better than a mining truck -- it's a meaningless comparison.

Unless you're just saying that the images aren't as pretty as the Hubble Deep Field, in which case I agree. Things always look prettier in optical than in radio.