The three-color optical image of the host galaxy of the hydroxyl megamaser, taken from the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) on the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope. Credit: Subaru Telescope.
The discovery was made by a worldwide team of astronomers led by Dr. Marcin Glowacki, who previously operated at the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
Dr. Glowacki, who is now based at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia, stated megamasers are generally developed when 2 galaxies strongly collide in deep space.
MeerKAT telescope. Credit: © SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory).
” When galaxies collide, the gas they consist of becomes very thick and can activate concentrated beams of light to shoot out,” he stated.
” This is the very first hydroxyl megamaser of its kind to be observed by MeerKAT and the most remote seen by any telescope to date.
” Its excellent that, with simply a single night of observations, weve already discovered a record-breaking megamaser. It shows just how excellent the telescope is.”.
The record-breaking object was called Nkalakatha [pronounced ng-kuh-la-kuh-tah]– an isiZulu word significance “huge employer.”.
Dr. Glowacki said the megamaser was identified on the opening night of a study including more than 3000 hours of observations by the MeerKAT telescope.
The group is utilizing MeerKAT to observe narrow areas of the sky very deeply and will determine atomic hydrogen in galaxies from the distant past to now. The combination of studying hydroxl masers and hydrogen will help astronomers much better comprehend how deep space has developed with time.
” We have follow-up observations of the megamaser planned and wish to make much more discoveries,” Dr. Glowacki said.
MeerKAT is a precursor instrument for the Square Kilometre Array– a worldwide effort to develop the worlds largest radio telescopes in Western Australia and South Africa.
Nkalakathas host galaxy as seen from Perth, Western Australia. Its ~ 5 billion light years away and invisible to the naked eye, between Archernar and Aldebaran. Credit: ICRAR.
Reference: “LADUMA: Discovery of a luminous OH megamaser at z>> 0.5” by Marcin Glowacki, Jordan D. Collier, Amir Kazemi-Moridani, Bradley Frank, Hayley Roberts, Jeremy Darling, Hans-Rainer Klöckner, Nathan Adams, Andrew J. Baker, Matthew Bershady, Tariq Blecher, Sarah-Louise Blyth, Rebecca Bowler, Barbara Catinella, Laurent Chemin, Steven M. Crawford, Catherine Cress, Romeel Davé, Roger Deane, Erwin de Blok, Jacinta Delhaize, Kenneth Duncan, Ed Elson, Sean February, Eric Gawiser, Peter Hatfield, Julia Healy, Patricia Henning, Kelley M. Hess, Ian Heywood, Benne W. Holwerda, Munira Hoosain, John P. Hughes, Zackary L. Hutchens, Matt Jarvis, Sheila Kannappan, Neal Katz, Dušan Kereš, Marie Korsaga, Renée C. Kraan-Korteweg, Philip Lah, Michelle Lochner, Natasha Maddox, Sphesihle Makhathini, Gerhardt R. Meurer, Martin Meyer, Danail Obreschkow, Se-Heon Oh, Tom Oosterloo, Joshua Oppor, Hengxing Pan, D. J. Pisano, Nandrianina Randriamiarinarivo, Swara Ravindranath, Anja C. Schröder, Rosalind Skelton, Oleg Smirnov, Mathew Smith, Rachel S. Somerville, Raghunathan Srianand, Lister Staveley-Smith, Masayuki Tanaka, Mattia Vaccari, Wim van Driel, Marc Verheijen, Fabian Walter, John F. Wu and Martin A. Zwaan, Astrophysical Journal Letters.arXiv:2204.02523.
Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy.
The Inter-university Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy is a partnership of three South African universities, the Universities of Cape Town, of the Western Cape and of Pretoria in addition to the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. The overarching objective of IDIA is to construct within the South African university research study community the capability and knowledge in information intensive research to allow worldwide management on MeerKAT large survey jobs and large tasks on other SKA pathfinder telescopes.
ICRAR.
The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is a joint endeavor between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia with support and financing from the State Government of Western Australia.
MeerKAT.
The South African MeerKAT radio telescope, positioned 90 km outside the little Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope and will be incorporated into the mid-frequency part of SKA Phase 1. The MeerKAT telescope is a selection of 64 interlinked receptors (a receptor is the complete antenna structure, with the primary reflector, sub-reflector and all receivers, digitizers, and other electronic devices installed). The MeerKAT is developed and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
The Square Kilometre Array.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is an international effort to develop the worlds largest radio telescope, with ultimately over a square kilometer (one million square meters) of gathering location.
Inside a galaxy merger are hydroxyl molecules, composed of one atom of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. When molecular gas is extremely thick, usually when two galaxies combine, this emission gets really intense and can be spotted by radio telescopes such as the MeerKAT. The South African MeerKAT radio telescope, positioned 90 km outside the small Northern Cape town of Carnarvon, is a precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope and will be integrated into the mid-frequency element of SKA Phase 1. The MeerKAT telescope is a selection of 64 interlinked receptors (a receptor is the total antenna structure, with the primary reflector, sub-reflector and all receivers, digitizers, and other electronics installed). The MeerKAT is built and operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Inside a galaxy merger are hydroxyl particles, made up of one atom of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. When molecular gas is extremely dense, generally when two galaxies combine, this emission gets extremely bright and can be identified by radio telescopes such as the MeerKAT.
A powerful radio-wave laser, called a megamaser, has actually been observed by the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa.
The record-breaking find is the most far-off megamaser of its kind ever detected, at about five billion light years from Earth.
The light from the megamaser has traveled 58 thousand billion (58 followed by 21 nos) kilometers to Earth.
