Inside a galaxy merger are hydroxyl particles, made up of one atom of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. When one particle takes in a photon at an 18 cm wavelength, it discharges 2 photons of the exact same wavelength. When molecular gas is extremely thick, usually when 2 galaxies combine, this emission gets extremely brilliant and can be identified by radio telescopes such as the MeerKAT. Credit: © IDIA/LADUMA utilizing information from NASA/StSci/SKAO/ MolView
An effective radio-wave laser, called a ‘megamaser,’ has actually been observed by the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa.
The record-breaking discover is the most remote megamaser of its kind ever identified, at about 5 billion light years from Earth.
The light from the megamaser has actually taken a trip 58 thousand billion billion (58 followed by 21 absolutely nos) kilometers to Earth.
The three-color optical picture of the host galaxy of the hydroxyl megamaser, drawn from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) on the 8.2 m SubaruTelescope Credit: Subaru Telescope
The discovery was made by a global group of astronomers led byDr Marcin Glowacki, who formerly operated at the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
Dr Glowacki, who is now based at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (< period class ="glossaryLink" aria-describedby ="tt" data-cmtooltip ="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>ICRAR</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Founded in 2009, the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is an equal joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia. </div>" data-gt-translate-attributes="[{" attribute="">ICRAR) in Western Australia, said megamasers are usually created when two galaxies violently collide in the Universe.
MeerKAT telescope. Credit: © SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory)
“When galaxies collide, the gas they contain becomes extremely dense and can trigger concentrated beams of light to shoot out,” he said.
“This is the first hydroxyl megamaser of its kind to be observed by MeerKAT and the most distant seen by any telescope to date.
“It’s impressive that, with just a single night of observations, we’ve already found a record-breaking megamaser. It shows just how good the telescope is.”
The record-breaking object was named ‘Nkalakatha’ [pronounced ng-kuh-la-kuh-tah]– an isiZulu word significance “big boss.”
Dr Glowacki stated the megamaser was identified on the opening night of a study including more than 3000 hours of observations by the MeerKAT telescope.
The group is utilizing MeerKAT to observe narrow areas of the sky exceptionally deeply and will determine atomic hydrogen in galaxies from the remote past to now. The mix of studying hydroxl masers and hydrogen will assist astronomers much better comprehend how the Universe has actually developed with time.
“We have follow-up observations of the megamaser planned and hope to make many more discoveries,”Dr Glowacki stated.
MeerKAT is a precursor instrument for the Square Kilometre Array– a worldwide effort to construct the world’s biggest radio telescopes in Western Australia and South Africa.
Nkalakatha’s host galaxy as seen from Perth, WesternAustralia It’s ~ 5 billion light years away and undetectable to the naked eye, in between Archernar andAldebaran Credit: ICRAR
Reference: “LADUMA: Discovery of a luminous OH megamaser at z>0.5” by Marcin Glowacki, Jordan D. Collier, Amir Kazemi-Moridani, Bradley Frank, Hayley Roberts, Jeremy Darling, Hans-Rainer Kl öckner, Nathan Adams, Andrew J. Baker, Matthew Bershady, Tariq Blecher, Sarah-Louise Blyth, Rebecca Bowler, Barbara Catinella, Laurent Chemin, Steven M. Crawford, Catherine Cress, Romeel Dav é, Roger Deane, Erwin de Blok, Jacinta Delhaize, Kenneth Duncan, Ed Elson, Sean February, Eric Gawiser, Peter Hatfield, Julia Healy, Patricia Henning, Kelley M. Hess, Ian Heywood, Benne W. Holwerda, Munira Hoosain, John P. Hughes, Zackary L. Hutchens, Matt Jarvis, Sheila Kannappan, Neal Katz, Du šan Kere š, Marie Korsaga, Ren ée C. Kraan-Korteweg, Philip Lah, Michelle Lochner, Natasha Maddox, Sphesihle Makhathini, Gerhardt R. Meurer, Martin Meyer, Danail Obreschkow, Se-Heon Oh, Tom Oosterloo, Joshua Oppor, Hengxing Pan, D. J. Pisano, Nandrianina Randriamiarinarivo, Swara Ravindranath, Anja C. Schr öder, Rosalind Skelton, Oleg Smirnov, Mathew Smith, Rachel S. Somerville, Raghunathan Srianand, Lister Staveley-Smith, Masayuki Tanaka, Mattia Vaccari, Wim van Driel, Marc Verheijen, Fabian Walter, John F. Wu and Martin A. Zwaan, Astrophysical Journal Letters
arXiv: 2204.02523
Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy
The Inter- university Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy is a collaboration of 3 South African universities, the Universities of Cape Town, of the Western Cape and of Pretoria along with the South African Radio AstronomyObservatory The overarching objective of IDIA is to construct within the South African university research study neighborhood the capability and knowledge in information extensive research study to allow international management on MeerKAT big study tasks and big tasks on other SKA pathfinder telescopes.
ICRAR
The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is a joint endeavor in between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia with assistance and financing from the State Government of Western Australia.
MeerKAT
The South African MeerKAT radio telescope, located 90 km outside the little Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope and will be incorporated into the mid-frequency part of SKA Phase 1. The MeerKAT telescope is a range of 64 interlinked receptors (a receptor is the total antenna structure, with the primary reflector, sub-reflector and all receivers, digitizers, and other electronic devices set up). The MeerKAT is constructed and run by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
The Square Kilometre Array
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) task is a global effort to construct the world’s biggest radio telescope, with ultimately over a square kilometer (one million square meters) of gathering location.
