Scientists take unusual pictures from distant galaxies

In addition to their visible gravity, images collected by astronomers reveal unprecedented details of how galaxies appeared in space.

Scientists have been able to create high-resolution images of distant galaxies, reach Statement issued by the Dutch Radio Astronomy Institute (ASTRON).

The observations were made using the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR), the largest network of low-frequency radio telescopes currently in operation on Earth, and has the ability to combine observations from nearly 70,000 antennas spread across Europe using a technique called radio interferometry, which allows it to Take some of the most sensitive radio observations of the night sky.

This technology has already provided scientists with valuable data about the universe, but the new observations outperform the information collected so far by offering 20 times the usual accuracy. This is because standard LOFAR operations use only antennas in the Netherlands, which cover an area of 120 km, while the new high-resolution images were obtained from a network of radio telescopes spread across Europe covering an area of 2,000 km.

Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) observations reveal the structure of a distant galaxy whose light is gravitationally bent around a massive group of galaxies in front of it.

“Our goal is that this will allow the scientific community to use the entire European network of LOFAR telescopes for their own science, without having to spend years becoming an expert,” said Leah Morabito, an astronomer at the University of Durham, UK. Astron.

Black hole particle jets

A total of 11 studies published In the special issue of the Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, it is devoted to one of the most surprising phenomena associated with galactic behavior: the firing of jets of relativistic particles into intergalactic space by supermassive black holes active in the center of galaxies, which can only be seen at radio wavelengths.

While the rest of the results use a high-bandwidth LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) antenna, just above the FM radio band, this is an exposition of how black hole radio jets appear at lower frequencies, just below the FM radio band. Radio where the wavelength is five times longer and we look at the older electrons

It is known that when something exceeds a critical threshold for a black hole, which is called the event horizon, it becomes impossible to escape from gravity. But the region around an active black hole is very dynamic, with matter spinning in a disk around the black hole, similar to what happens when water runs down a drain.

“These high-resolution images allow us to zoom in to see what actually happens when supermassive black holes release radio jets, which was not previously possible at frequencies close to the FM radio range,” explained Neil Jackson, an astronomer at the University of Manchester. , UK, to ASTRON, referring to material flowing from the centers of some galaxies at a speed close to the speed of light, and emitting powerful radio waves.

The galaxies analyzed include 3C 293, a galaxy with strange, massive radio lobes that indicate an intermittent jet stream. The researchers concluded that the galaxy experienced multiple bouts of activity due to jet lag and intermittent fuel supplies, suggesting that its supermassive black hole experienced at least one bout of inactivity.

Galactic-sized winds from a giant star factory were detected, in a dust-covered core, that ignited when two galaxies merged.

In addition, a galaxy more than 11 billion light-years away was analyzed, which is usually difficult to observe in detail at low frequencies.