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A stunning new image from the South African MeerKAT Telescope captures powerful radio broadcasts woven into space.
The radio broadcasts emanate from a huge black hole which sits at the center of an elliptical galaxy known as IC 4296. The energy released by matter falling into the black hole generates two radio jets of high-energy gas on opposite sides of the galaxy – creating what is also called a dual-lobe radio. galaxy.
Using the South African Radio Astronomical Observatory’s (SARAO) MeerKAT telescope, located in the southwestern Karoo region, the researchers detected radio waves from the IC 4296, along with other cosmic features. unique that could reveal new clues about large radiogalaxies, according to a statement from SARAO.
Related: 10 huge black hole finds of 2020
Recent observations of IC 4296 revealed that the radio jets become unstable as they travel beyond the confines of the galaxy, allowing some of the charged electrons to escape into intergalactic space. These stray electrons create several weak radio “wires” that appear beneath the galaxy in the new image.
The MeerKAT radio data – represented by the red-orange colored gas in the composite image – also captures smooth “ribbons” between the emitting jets of light and the outer lobes on either side of the galaxy. Radio lobes are caused by the interaction of a jet with its surrounding environment. The ribbons fill the channels that the jets have dug in the surrounding gas. Almost a million light years from IC 4296, the ribbons are encountered by intergalactic gas, creating “smoke rings” in the radio lobes, the statement said.
“Only MeerKAT’s unique combination of sensitivity, angular resolution and dynamic range enabled the discovery of these wires, ribbons and rings,” Jim Condon, lead author of the US National study Radio astronomy Observatory, specifies the press release.
The intergalactic wires, ribbons and rings captured in recent MeerKAT radio data represent a never-before-seen combination of cosmic features, according to the SARAO statement.
“Only MeerKAT’s unique combination of sensitivity, angular resolution and dynamic range enabled the discovery of these wires, ribbons and rings,” Jim Condon, lead author of the US National study Radio astronomy Observatory, specifies the press release.
The intergalactic wires, ribbons and rings captured in recent MeerKAT radio data represent a never-before-seen combination of cosmic features, according to the SARAO statement.
The South African MeerKAT radio telescope, which was launched in 2018, is a precursor to Square kilometer table (SKA), which aims to answer fundamental astrophysical questions about the nature of objects in the universe with dishes scattered across South Africa and Australia.
“It is clear that new findings like this one from MeerKAT and other SKA scouts are about to revise our understanding of extragalactic radio sources,” the statement said.
Recent discoveries have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
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