South African MeerKAT telescope has captured a stunning image of powerful radio emissions woven through the cosmos. The radio emissions emerge from a massive black hole at the center of an elliptical galaxy called IC4296.
The image shows the energy released by matter that’s getting sucked into the black hole, generating two radio jets of high-energy gas on opposite sides of the galaxy. It creates a double-lobed radio galaxy.
Mysteries of radio galaxies
Leveraging the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (SARAO) MeerKAT telescope, scientists found radio waves from IC 4296 alongside other cosmic features that could unfurl mysteries of large radio galaxies, as per a statement from the SARAO.
Recent observations of the IC 4296 have revealed that the radio jets aren’t stable while traveling beyond the outer reaches of the galaxy. It enables some of the altered electrons to escape into space. These stray electrons create many faint radio “threads,” which can be seen below the galaxy.
The radio lobes are a result of the interaction of a jet with the medium it is surrounded with. Almost 1 million light-years from the galaxy, the ribbons meet intergalactic gas, forming “smoke rings.”
“Only MeerKAT’s unique combination of sensitivity, angular resolution, and dynamic range allowed the discovery of these threads, ribbons, and rings,” Jim Condon, lead author of the study from the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, said in the statement.
MeerKAT’s uniqueness made discovery possible
The intergalactic threads, ribbons, and rings recorded in the latest observation show a never-seen-before combination of cosmic features, as per SARAO.
“Only MeerKAT’s unique combination of sensitivity, angular resolution, and dynamic range allowed the discovery of these threads, ribbons, and rings,” said Jim Condon, lead author of the study from the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
The South African MeerKAT radio telescope which started its operations in 2018, is the predecessor of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) that aims to answer astrophysical questions about the nature of objects in the cosmos.
“It is clear that new results like this from MeerKAT and other SKA pathfinders are set to overhaul our understanding of extragalactic radio sources,” according to the statement.
