Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Astronomers Found the Ghost of a Rare Giant Radio Galaxy
gizmodo.com ^ | 11/08/15 4:05pm | Kiona Smith-Strickland

Posted on 11/09/2015 6:14:29 AM PST by Red Badger

Image: J021659-044920. The red and yellow lobes are the galaxy’s radio lobes. The red spot in the center is the visible galaxy. Prathamesh Tamhane/Yogesh Wadadekar.

==================================================================================================================

Astronomers in India have discovered a very unusual galaxy, and it’s dying. By now, in fact, it’s probably already dead.

The new galaxy, known as J021659-044920, is 9 billion light years away from Earth. That means it’s really old in cosmic terms (but not quite as old as the oldest object astronomers have ever found, a galaxy 13 billion light years away called UDFy-38135539). Viewed in the visible spectrum, J021659-044920spans about 100,000 light years from one edge to the other - but there’s much more there than meets the eye.

When Prathamesh Tamhane, a student at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, and his colleagues looked at J021659-044920 in the radio spectrum, they saw giant lobes of radio emissions, stretching 4 million light years from end to end. J021659-044920 is what astronomers call a giant radio galaxy, and it’s a rare find. Tamhane and his colleagues published their discovery in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Like most galaxies, this one has a supermassive black hole at its heart. As the black hole’s incredible gravity draws material toward it, the doomed material falls inward in a spiral. The motion of all that charged material creates powerful electromagnetic forces, which can accelerate material away from the black hole at nearly the speed of light. Those jets of hot plasma, blasting away from the black hole in opposite directions, produce huge lobes of radio emissions that can span much greater distances than the galaxy’s visible light.

Astronomers call these “radio galaxies,” and smaller ones, less than a million light years across, are relatively common, in astronomical terms. The image above, for instance, is radio galaxy Hercules A, shown in a visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope combined with a radio image from the Very Large Array in New Mexico. But only a few giant radio galaxies like J021659-044920 are much rarer, especially at such great distances, have ever been found. And this one is dying.

When the black hole at the center of a radio galaxy stops producing plasma jets, the radio lobes’ power source gets cut off, and they slowly fade away over the next few million years. Tamhane and his colleagues observed J021659-044920 at this final stage of its life, with its enormous radio lobes still there but beginning to fade. In fact, because J021659-044920 is so far away, its radio lobes probably faded out long ago, but their light is only now reaching Earth.


TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: galaxy; stringtheory; xplanets
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-34 last
To: Lazamataz

Well, they’ve had 9 billion years to fix it!...........................


21 posted on 11/09/2015 7:45:30 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Lazamataz

I want to tell you about galactic radio and the big beat.


22 posted on 11/09/2015 7:53:34 AM PST by Larry Lucido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Larry Lucido

I’m on a wavelength far from home
I feel a hot wind on my shoulder


23 posted on 11/09/2015 7:55:40 AM PST by Travis T. OJustice (I miss my dad.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
If it was already dying 9 billion years ago, we may have finally discovered something that can't be blamed on George W. Bush.

It may be too late to save this radio galaxy, but we still need to fight climate change to save the other radio galaxies!

/s

24 posted on 11/09/2015 8:40:57 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
If it was already dying 9 billion years ago, we may have finally discovered something that can't be blamed on George W. Bush.

It may be too late to save this radio galaxy, but we still need to fight climate change to save the other radio galaxies!

/s

25 posted on 11/09/2015 8:40:57 AM PST by Verginius Rufus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Verginius Rufus

This Radio Galaxy was dying.............until Rush Limbaugh came along and saved it!................................


26 posted on 11/09/2015 9:38:43 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Video killed the radio galaxy.


27 posted on 11/09/2015 9:46:22 AM PST by GreenHornet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GreenHornet

Internet killed the Video Galaxy...............


28 posted on 11/09/2015 9:57:10 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis; annie laurie; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Mmogamer; ...
Thanks Red Badger.
 
X-Planets
· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·
Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

29 posted on 11/09/2015 9:59:09 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Red Badger; 6SJ7; AdmSmith; AFPhys; Arkinsaw; allmost; aristotleman; autumnraine; bajabaja; ...
Thanks Red Badger.

· String Theory Ping List ·
721 posted on 04/24/2007 8:14:42 PM PDT by DocRock
· Join · Bookmark · Topics · Google ·
· View or Post in 'blog · post a topic · subscribe ·


30 posted on 11/09/2015 9:59:12 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis; annie laurie; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Mmogamer; ...
Thanks Red Badger, extra to APoD.

31 posted on 11/09/2015 9:59:56 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

A galaxy filled with giants and radios?!!?


32 posted on 11/10/2015 8:33:42 AM PST by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

“Who are you....”
Z’ha’dum


33 posted on 11/10/2015 8:44:19 AM PST by Zathras
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Grimmy

34 posted on 11/10/2015 8:47:32 AM PST by Red Badger (READ MY LIPS: NO MORE BUSHES!...............)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-34 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson