J. English (U. Manitoba) / EMU / MeerKAT / DES (CTIO)
Astronomers have been confused about the nature and origin of rare, mysterious radio circuits in space since objects were first discovered in 2019. Now, the high-definition Mirkat Radio Telescope in South Africa has filmed such circuits in great detail. Some useful tips on this rare event. Image and related analysis appeared on the front axle on arXivAnd this Paper Approved for publication in the monthly announcements of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The invention was born Evolutionary map of the universe (EMU), its purpose Takes A questionnaire Radio sources In the sky. Many years ago, astronomer Ray Norris worked at the University of Western Sydney CSIRO In Australia, the EU project was expected to bring unexpected innovations. He called them “WTF”. Norris agreed 2020 piece Conversationally, we can expect these results to emerge from machine learning analysis, which contains a lot of data. “But these discoveries were made with good antique vision,” he wrote.
He holds a pair of glasses Anna Kapinska, Astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory (NRAO). While browsing the new radio astronomical data collected by CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometer Array (ASKAP) telescope, Kabinska noticed several strange patterns. After Norris was named, they were potentially named WTF. One of them, according to Norris, is “a picture of a ghostly circle of radio emissions suspended in space, such as the Cosmic Smoke Ring.”
Evolutionary map of the universe
Soon other team members discovered two different circuit fluctuations, which they called individual radio circuits (ORCs). The fourth ORC has been identified as India’s MetreWave giant radio telescope archive data, and the new fifth ASKAP data was discovered last year. Many objects can be ORCs. Based on this, the committee estimates that there may be a total of 1,000 ORCs.
When Norris And others. At first bubbles were thought to be imaging artifacts, but data from other radio telescopes actually confirmed that they were a new type of astronomical object. They are not displayed on standard optical or infrared and X-ray telescopes – only on the radio spectrum. Astronomers suspect radio emissions from electron clouds. But this does not explain why ORCs are not shown at other wavelengths.
All ORCs confirmed so far have a galaxy at the center, suggesting that this may be a factor in how they form. It is very large, about 1 million light-years across, much larger than our Milky Way galaxy. “ORCs are rings of dim radio emissions around a galaxy that we know have a very active black hole at their center, but we still do not know what causes them, or why they are so rare.” Norris said.
Larry Rodnick / Mirkot
Astronomers have proposed many possibilities for what objects look like. It could be a supernova remnant or Einstein’s rings. Alternatively, although ORCs are generally much more rounded than the clouds that result from this phenomenon in radio galaxies, they can be caused by streams of electrons emanating from near a very large black hole. A very speculative plan has been put forward that ORCs may actually be “shared” wormholes.
According to Norris, ASKAP is ideal for exploring large areas of the sky, while MeerKAT is designed to magnify any object of interest, so the two telescope classes complement each other. This latest radio image from MeerKAT shows several small rings within a large outer circle. Miragade also mapped the polarity of the radio wave, detecting a magnetic field at the edge of the sphere. This is similar to an eruption in the central galaxy.
“We can now see that each orc is centered on a galaxy, which is much darker than previously discovered,” Norris wrote. New article In conversation. “Circles often erupt a million light-years away from the central galaxy, and they are massive bursts of hot gas. Instead of balls, they look like rings, shining brightly at the edges of the ball, like a soap bubble in my view.
Radio Astronomy Laboratory in South Africa
What caused the explosion that led to the formation of the ORC? The new data is sufficient to rule out all but three possibilities. First, ORCs are the result of a shock wave from the center of the galaxy that can arise from the fusion of two large black holes. Alternatively, it may be the result of radio jets emitting particles from active galaxy nuclei. Finally, ORCs can be galaxy bombs (“termination shock”), which create a spherical shock wave when hot gas is emitted from the galaxy.
Additional data are needed to determine which of these hypotheses is correct. Norris hopes that a larger group of radio telescopes, called the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), will be operational by 2028, and that SKA will find more ORCs to learn more about the life cycle of galaxies. Additional tracking data may help astronomers identify strangely curved strands of radio emissions lurking within the outer ring.
Meanwhile, many astronomers are facing a new cosmic mystery to be solved. “People often want to explain their observations and show that they are with the best information we have.” Co-author Jordan Collier said: International University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy. “For me, finding something new is so exciting, it’s beyond our current understanding.”
DOI: Monthly Announcements of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2022. 10.1093 / manras / stac701 (About DOIs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tYr_5sD-RA
An artist’s view of private radio circuits emanating from the center of the galaxy.
