Galaxies 1B light years away create the illusion of “dancing ghosts”

• Scientists looked deep into the universe to find a structure that looked like two dancing ghosts.
• The “ghosts” are made up of electrons coming out of “radiogalaxies”, the scientists discovered.
• The unusual shape of the clouds “confused” scientists, an expert told Insider.

Researchers have discovered a cosmic phenomenon that resembles two people dancing in deep space, according to a study published last week.

The structure, named PKS 2130-538 and nicknamed the “dancing ghosts”, is located about a billion light years from Earth.

The annotated image below shows the outline of the phenomenon:

A pre-peer review version of the study was posted last week on the aRXiv preprint server. A peer-reviewed version of the study is expected to be released on an unspecified date, according to a statement accompanying the study.

“When we first saw the ‘dancing ghosts’ we had no idea what they were,” said Professor Ray Norris of the University of Western Sydney, lead author of the research project, in the press release.

After weeks of analysis, scientists discovered that the clouds were made up of electrons spewed out by two “radiogalaxies” at each end of the structure, as can be seen here:

But what really intrigued scientists was the shape of the clouds, an expert told Insider.

“What has baffled scientists is that these structures are so complex and extremely distorted,” said Dr Kai Noeske, communications manager for the European Space Agency and a researcher on distant galaxies.

The shape of the “ghosts” calls into question what science knows about this type of galaxy

Radio galaxies revolve around a massive black hole, billions of times the size of the sun.

As matter turns into black holes, particles carrying electric charges are accelerated to incredible speeds. Magnetic fields eject part of the material in the form of “jets” moving away from the poles of the black hole.

“The jets that come out are moving at high speeds, some not far from the speed of light. You have electrons, positrons and probably protons too,” Noeske told Insider.

Noeske said that normally these jets shoot directly out of galaxies, as can be seen in this image from the Hercules A radio galaxy:

There is no air in space, but gas blown from galaxies can rush around the universe at breakneck speed, traveling hundreds of kilometers per second.

When the jets hit this intergalactic gas, they can bend.

“Corn [the dancing ghosts] are a complete mess, “Noeske said.” They are heavily distorted and astronomers are bewildered because at this point they don’t understand where these probably very complex movements are coming from. “

In a blog post in The Conversation, Norris – the study’s lead author – said he believed the winds from both galaxies were responsible for some of the dancing ghosts’ shapes (annotated below) . However, he said he doesn’t understand what causes an arm of the cloud, annotated below with the number 3.

The “dancing ghosts” were detected by Australia’s Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, one of the most sensitive telescopes ever built and part of the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) project.

The project, launched in 2009, was designed to help scientists understand the birth of stars. According to Norris, these are some of the early results of the project.