Astronomers marvel through a distant galaxy surrounded by two giant and crossed rings of radio light In spaceeach about 300,000 light years wide.
The discovery, made by volunteers in the Rad @ Home Astronomy Collaboratory The Citizen -Science program in Mumbai, is what we call – and we will not please – a “strange radio circle”. The rings are both in an even larger radio cloud which extends almost 3 million light years.
These circles, sometimes called orcs to be short, were only found six years ago, and their origin is still a mystery. They can be shock waves Fusion of black holes Or galaxies. Most are 10 to 20 times larger than the Milky Way, but only a handful are known so far.
The newly reported Orc, named Rad J131346.9 + 500320, is the most distant and the most powerful ever found. It is so far in space that astronomers see it as it was when the universe was only half of its current age of 13.8 billion years, because the light took so long to reach the earth. What makes even more extraordinary is that it is made up of two circles that overlap – a double ring phenomenon seen only once before.
“The orcas are among the most bizarre and most beautiful cosmic structures we have ever seen,” said Ananda Hota, founder of the program, in a declaration“And they can have vital clues about how galaxies and black holes co-evolve, hand in hand.”
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This composite image shows a distant galaxy in optical light with a rare phenomenon called “strange radio circle”, Rad J131346.9 + 500320, superimposed on the top in red.
Credit: RAD @ Home Astronomy Collaboratory (India)
It is the first orc discovered by the science assisted by citizens and the first identified using LoofarA network of antennas distributed through the Netherlands and other European countries. Orc can only be detected by radio-telescopes.
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The discovery came from volunteers using their own eyes to scan deep space cards, looking for unusual models that computers may have missed. THE results were published in the Monthly opinion from the Royal Astronomical Society.
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The authors suggest that these rings could be created by powerful winds that blow from certain galaxies, which throw material in a distant space and shape it in these structures. An animation created by the program, illustrated below, illustrates the rare expansion double ring after an explosive event in the central galaxy.
In addition to the double ring, the program has found two other examples. In RAD J122622.6 + 640622, astronomers experienced a galaxy of almost 3 million light years in diameter. One of the jets drawing from its nucleus formed a sudden curve, blowing a ring of radio light about 100,000 light years wide.
In the third, Rad J142004.0 + 621715, the galaxy extended 1.4 million light years and showed a ring similar to the tip of one of its jets, with another narrow jet displayed on the other side of the host galaxy.
Scientists say that these strange cosmic objects show that galaxies can shape their environment in more ways than expected.
“Orcs and radio rings are not isolated curiosities,” said Pratik Dabhade, co-author of the National Center for Nuclear Research in Poland, in a press release. “They are part of a wider family of exotic plasma structures shaped by jets of black holes, winds and their environments.”
