Credit: Image by Jayanne English and Ray Norris using information from EMU and the Dark Energy Survey
Credit: Image produced by Jayanne English from data from EMU and the Dark Energy Survey.
These plumes had actually never ever been seen prior to the EMU Pilot Survey, even though the galaxy IC5063 (the brilliant blob in the center) is a very well-studied galaxy. Credit: Image by Ray Norris from EMU data and Dark Energy Survey information
EMU sees almost all the spiral galaxies in the neighboring Universe that were formerly seen just by optical and infrared telescopes.
Credit: Jayanne English/EMU/Dark Energy Survey
Scanning through data fresh off the telescope, we saw two ghosts dancing deep in the universes. We had never ever seen anything like it before, and we had no concept what they were.
A number of weeks later on, we had determined we were seeing two radio galaxies, about a billion light-years away. In the center of each one is a supermassive great void, squirting out jets of electrons that are bent into monstrous shapes by an intergalactic wind.
But where does the intergalactic wind come from? Why is it so tangled? And what is triggering the streams of radio emission? We still do not comprehend the information of what is going on here, and it will most likely take much more observations and modeling prior to we do.
The 2 galaxies we believe are accountable for the streams of electrons (revealed as curved arrows) that form the Dancing Ghosts. However we do not understand what is triggering the filament labeled as 3. Credit: Image by Jayanne English and Ray Norris utilizing data from EMU and the Dark Energy Survey
We are getting utilized to surprises as we scan the skies in the Evolutionary Map of deep space (EMU) task, using CSIROs new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a radio telescope that probes deeper into deep space than any other. When you boldly go where no telescope has preceded, you are most likely to make brand-new discoveries.
A deep search returns numerous surprises
The Dancing Ghosts were simply among numerous surprises found in our very first deep search of the sky utilizing ASKAP. This search, called the EMU Pilot Survey, is explained in detail in a paper published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
The image produced by the EMU Pilot Survey. Credit: Image by Ray Norris from EMU information
The very first big surprise from the EMU Pilot Survey was the discovery of mysterious Odd Radio Circles (ORCs), which appear to be huge rings of radio emission, almost a million light-years across, surrounding remote galaxies.
These had actually never ever been seen prior to, since they are faint and so uncommon. We still dont know what they are, but we are working furiously to learn.
The first Odd Radio Circle. Radio data are green and the white and colored data show the optical background from the Dark Energy Survey Credit: Image created by Jayanne English from information from EMU and the Dark Energy Survey.
We are finding surprises even in locations we thought we understood. Next door to the well-studied galaxy IC5063, we discovered a giant radio galaxy, among the biggest understood, whose presence had actually never even been suspected.
This new galaxy too consists of a supermassive great void, spraying out jets of electrons almost 5 million light-years long. ASKAP is the only telescope on the planet that can see the total extent of this faint emission.
What EMU can do
A lot of known sources of radio emissions are triggered by supermassive great voids in quasars and active galaxies, which produce incredibly intense signals. Because radio telescopes have actually constantly struggled to see the much fainter radio emission from normal spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way, this is.
These plumes had never ever been seen prior to the EMU Pilot Survey, even though the galaxy IC5063 (the bright blob in the center) is a really well-studied galaxy. Credit: Image by Ray Norris from EMU data and Dark Energy Survey data
The EMU project goes deep sufficient to see them too. EMU sees nearly all the spiral nebula in the close-by Universe that were formerly seen only by infrared and optical telescopes. EMU can even trace the spiral arms in the closest ones.
EMU will assist us understand the birth of new stars in these galaxies.
These a few of the first results the EMU project, which we began in 2009. The EMU team of more than 400 researchers in more than 20 nations has actually spent the previous 12 years preparing the project, developing techniques, writing software application, and working with the CSIRO engineers who were developing the telescope. It has been a long haul, however we are at last seeing the remarkable data we have actually imagined for so long.
The Galaxy NGC 7125 with EMU radio data (contours) overlaid on an optical image (colored from the Dark Energy Survey. Credit: Image produced by Baerbel Koribalski from EMU information and Dark Energy Survey data
This is only the start. Over the next few years, EMU will utilize the ASKAP telescope to explore even deeper in deep space, structure on these discoveries and finding more. All the data from EMU will become put in the general public domain, so that astronomers from around the globe can mine the information and make new discoveries.
However do not take my word for it. You can currently utilize EMU Pilot Survey data to explore the radio sky yourself, using the zoomable image on our site.
Use your mouse wheel to focus from the huge picture down to the finest details, and see what you find. Perhaps you may even discover something there that the astronomers have missed out on.
Written by Ray Norris, Professor, School of Science, Western Sydney University.
This article was very first released in The Conversation.
For more on this research study, see Strange “Dancing Ghosts” Point to Surprising New Discoveries in the Cosmos.