CANADA: A team of astronomers from the National Center for Radio Astrophysics in India discovered a Giant Radio Galaxy (GRG) nine billion light years away through the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The galaxy is said to be in its dying phase, thereby providing experts with information regarding the structure of galaxies that are about to fade away.
Radio galaxies discharge strong radio waves that obscure the optical signals of similar galaxies. Those that are enormous in size are very rare and the newly discovered one, named J021659-044920, emits radio signals equivalent to an extent of four million light years.
Despite its mighty ability to produce such massive radio waves, the J021659-044920 is only a few hundred thousand light years in optical size. This then raises questions of how such an optically-sized galaxy generates multi-million light years worth of radio waves.
Experts said that a huge black hole at the center of the galaxy pushes big scale jets of hot plasma to move in opposite directions, resulting in large radio lobes that are emitted into space.
The black hole may eventually stop generating radio jets under special conditions. When this happens, the illuminating radio lobes fade away within millions of years because of inadequate resumption.
