Astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa have discovered the most distant hydroxyl megamaser ever detected. It is located in a violently merging galaxy more than 8 billion light-years away, opening a new radio astronomy frontier.
A megamaser acts as an astronomical laser that beams out microwave emission rather than visible light. Credit: ESA/Hubble The Universe is full of surprises, including a fascinating type of"space laser" known as Mega-Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation .
More specifically, hydroxyl megamasers are extremely bright radio-wavelength emissions produced when gas-rich galaxies collide. This compresses the gas and stimulates large reservoirs of hydroxyl molecules to amplify radio emissions. Using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, astronomers discovered a hydroxyl megamaser located in a violent galactic merger more than 8 billion light-years away.Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, the detection was due in part to MeerKAT's high sensitivity at centimeter wavelengths and sophisticated algorithms and computing platform. It was further enabled by a massive galaxy in the foreground that amplified the light source - a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Dr. Thato Manamela, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pretoria and lead author of the new study, explained in a This system is truly extraordinary. We are seeing the radio equivalent of a laser halfway across the universe. Not only that, during its journey to Earth, the radio waves are further amplified by a perfectly aligned, yet unrelated foreground galaxy. This galaxy acts as a lens, the way a water droplet on a window pane would, because its mass curves the local space-time. So we have a radio laser passing through a cosmic telescope before being detected by the powerful MeerKAT radio telescope – all together enabling a wonderfully serendipitous discovery. Illustration of the distant galaxy 8 billion light-years away , magnified by an unrelated foreground disk galaxy, resulting in a red ring. Credit: Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy While the physical mechanism behind OHMs is very similar to that used on Earth, megamasers operate at much longer wavelengths , placing them in the radio spectrum rather than visible light. When a signature is exceptionally bright, it is termed a megamaser because of the immense energy it emits and its visibility over great cosmic distances. In fact, the laser in this newly-discovered system is so luminous that the MeerKAT team has named it a"gigalaser," which existed when the Universe was 6 billion years old - less than half its current age. This makes the gigalaser the most distant and energetic example of this phenomenon ever witnessed."This result is a powerful demonstration of what MeerKAT can do when paired with advanced computational infrastructure, fit-for-purpose data processing pipelines, and highly-trained software support personnel," said co-author Prof Roger Deane, the Director of the."This synergistic combination empowers young South African scientists, like Dr. Manamela, to lead cutting-edge science and compete with the best in the world." In the same dataset, the team also detected a previously unknown neutral atomic hydrogen absorption line. These results, and the high signal-to-noise ratio obtained with just 4.7 hours of observation time, highlight the potential of MeerKAT and the future. This international collaboration includes 16 participating countries and will rely on the combined power of the MeerKAT array and theThis is just the beginning. We don’t want to find just one system – we want to find hundreds to thousands. Here at the University of Pretoria, we are carrying out systematic surveys of the universe, building the required computational pipelines and algorithms to open this observational frontier ahead of, and ultimately with the Square Kilometre Array.Matt Williams is a space journalist, science communicator, and author with several published titles and studies. His work is featured in
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
China builds massive 3D face database to sharpen humanoid robots using point cloudsChinese researchers build massive 3D facial dataset and AI model to make humanoid robots more lifelike.
Read more »
Loudoun County School Board Settles Lawsuit with Students Who Questioned Girl Using Boys’ Locker RoomSource of breaking news and analysis, insightful commentary and original reporting, curated and written specifically for the new generation of independent and conservative thinkers.
Read more »
Kesha tells the White House to stop using her music, pervertsThree weeks before bombing Iran, the White House used Kesha’s “Blow” to make missile-strike thirst traps on TikTok. Now, the singer is pushing back.
Read more »
This Giant Star Just Switched Colors—and It Might Be About to BlowAstronomers watched as the supergiant WOH G64 reshaped itself into a different type of star.
Read more »
Astronomers Spot a Record-Breaking 'Space Laser' 8 Billion Light-Years AwayThe Best in Science News and Amazing Breakthroughs
Read more »
Astronomers capture the most detailed image yet of our galaxy’s centerAstronomers produced the most complete map of the center of the Milky Way, which can provide insight into how stars and planets are formed.
Read more »