Strongest ‘odd radio circle’ so far is found

The most distant and strongest ‘odd radio circle’ (ORC) identified to this point has been found by astronomers.

These curious rings are a comparatively new astronomical phenomenon, having been detected for the primary time simply six years in the past. Only a handful of confirmed examples are identified – most of that are 10-20 instances the scale of our Milky Way galaxy.

ORCs are huge, faint, ring-shaped buildings of radio emission surrounding galaxies that are seen solely within the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum and include relativistic, magnetised plasma. Previous analysis has instructed they could be attributable to shockwaves from merging supermassive black holes or galaxies.

Now, a brand new examine printed in the present day in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society proposes that the rings of sunshine may very well be linked to superwind outflows from spiral host radio galaxies.

Researchers led by the University of Mumbai made their discovery with the assistance of the RAD@residence Astronomy Collaboratory citizen science platform and the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), the world’s largest and most delicate radio telescope working at low frequencies (10 to 240 megahertz).

The supply, designated RAD J131346.9+500320, lies almost at redshift ~0.94 (when the universe was half its present age), making it each essentially the most distant and essentially the most highly effective ORC identified so far.

It additionally has not one however two intersecting rings – solely the second such instance with this characteristic – sparking extra questions than solutions.

Dr Ananda Hota, founding father of the RAD@residence Astronomy Collaboratory for citizen science analysis, mentioned: “This work shows how professional astronomers and citizen scientists together can push the boundaries of scientific discovery.

“ORCs are among the many most weird and exquisite cosmic buildings we have ever seen – they usually might maintain important clues about how galaxies and black holes co-evolve, hand-in-hand.”

RAD J131346.9+500320 is the first ORC discovered through citizen science and the first identified with the help of LOFAR.

LOFAR is a cutting-edge pan-European radio telescope, with hundreds of thousands of simple antennas spread across the Netherlands and partner stations in many European countries. Working together as one giant interferometer, it provides an exceptionally sharp and sensitive view of the sky at low radio frequencies.

It enables astronomers to look back billions of years to a time before the first stars and galaxies formed by surveying vast areas of the low-frequency radio sky.

Alongside the new ORC discovery, the RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory also found two other unusual cosmic giants.

The first, RAD J122622.6+640622, is a galaxy nearly three million light-years across – more than 25 times the size of our Milky Way. One of its powerful jets suddenly bends sideways, as if forced off course, and then blows a spectacular radio ring about 100,000 light-years wide.

The second, RAD J142004.0+621715, stretches across 1.4 million light-years and shows a similar ring of radio emission at the end of one of its jets, with another narrow radio jet on the other side of the host galaxy.

Both galaxies sit in crowded regions of space called galaxy clusters, where their jets likely interact with surrounding matter, million degree hot thermal plasma, which shapes these striking cosmic structures.

All three objects are found in galaxy clusters weighing about 100 trillion Suns, suggesting that interactions of relativistic magnetised plasma jets with the surrounding hot thermal plasma may help shape these rare rings.

Co-author Dr Pratik Dabhade, of the National Centre for Nuclear Research in Warsaw, Poland, said: “These discoveries present that ORCs and radio rings usually are not remoted curiosities – they’re a part of a broader household of unique plasma buildings formed by black gap jets, winds, and their environments.

“The fact that citizen scientists uncovered them highlights the continued importance of human pattern recognition, even in the age of machine learning.”

With upcoming amenities such because the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), astronomers anticipate many extra ORCs to be uncovered.

At the identical time, new optical surveys such because the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will present the redshifts and environments of their host galaxies, serving to to piece collectively how these mysterious rings type and evolve.

For now, the three new cosmic rings – found not by automated software program however by sharp-eyed citizen scientists – signify an essential step towards unlocking the secrets and techniques of those huge, puzzling buildings.

ENDS

---

Media contacts

Sam Tonkin

Royal Astronomical Society

Mob: +44 (0)7802 877 700

press@ras.ac.uk

---

Science contacts

Dr Ananda Hota

UM-DAE CEBS & CETACS, University of Mumbai, India

RAD@residence Astronomy Collaboratory

hotaananda@gmail.com

 

Dr Pratik Dabhade

Astrophysics Division, National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland

pratik.dabhade@ncbj.gov.pl

---

Images & captions

Odd Radio Circle

Caption: Optical RGB picture from the Legacy Surveys, overlaid with radio emission in pink from the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS), exhibiting the ‘odd radio circle’ (ORC) RAD J131346.9+500320.

Credit: RAD@residence Astronomy Collaboratory (India)

 

Animation of ORC

Caption: An inventive visualisation of the uncommon twin-ring ORC (RAD J131346.9+500320), increasing outward after an explosive occasion within the central galaxy.

Credit: RAD@residence Astronomy Collaboratory (India)

 

ORC animation nonetheless

Caption: A nonetheless picture from the animation of RAD J131346.9+500320.

Credit: RAD@residence Astronomy Collaboratory (India)

---

Further data

The paper ‘RAD@home discovery of extragalactic radio rings and odd radio circles: clues to their origins’ by Ananda Hota and Pratik Dabhade et all. has been printed in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf1531.

---

Notes for editors

About the Royal Astronomical Society

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), based in 1820, encourages and promotes the examine of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and intently associated branches of science.

The RAS organises scientific conferences, publishes worldwide analysis and assessment journals, recognises excellent achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an in depth library, helps training by grants and outreach actions and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its greater than 4,000 members (Fellows), a 3rd based mostly abroad, embrace scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories in addition to historians of astronomy and others.

The RAS accepts papers for its journals based mostly on the precept of peer assessment, wherein fellow consultants on the editorial boards settle for the paper as value contemplating. The Society points press releases based mostly on the same precept, however the organisations and scientists involved have general accountability for his or her content material.

Keep up with the RAS on Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.