LONDON: Indian astronomers have discovered an extremely rare radio galaxy – a giant, with an extent of a whopping 4 million light years caught in its dying phase at an incredible distance of 9 billion light years.
A team of astronomers working at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune, using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), found the galaxy located towards the constellation Cetus, emitting powerful radio waves with an end to end extent of 4 million light years.
Such galaxies with extremely large ‘radio size’ are appropriately called giant radio galaxies.
It is argued that the presence of a super massive black hole at the centre of the galaxy drives large scale jets of hot plasma in diametrically opposite directions which eventually give rise to large radio lobes.
While radio galaxies with size less than a million light years are common, giant radio galaxies are extremely rare, even more so, at large cosmic distances where only a handful have been discovered so far.
The newly discovered galaxy known by its scientific name ‘J021659-044920’ is the newest member of this elite group.
