Dying Giant Radio Galaxy Discovered 9 Billion Light Years Away

First Posted: Nov 09, 2015 09:41 AM EST
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Researchers discovered a giant, dying radio galaxy located 9 billion light years away using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA, TIFR) in Pune, India.

The astronomers found that this rare type of giant galaxy is headed towards the constellation Cetus, according to a news release. These galaxies release powerful radio waves and have a tendency of being roughly 4 million light years from end-to-end. These types of galaxies with large "radio size" are known as giant radio galaxies. 

The researchers found that this type of giant galaxy produces radio emission over the course of several millions years. The researchers believe that a massive black hole is in the center of this galaxy. The newly found galaxy was identified with in scientific terms as J021659-044920, which is the newest of the category.

The astronomers found J021659-044920 in its dying phase. This type of galaxy is best studied using a low frequency radio telescope, thus the GMRT was ideal in this case. The researchers combined their GMRT observations along with observations made by other international space telescopes, such as NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and several others to carry out a detailed analysis of the physical environment on the far-off galaxy.

The GMRT was built and is operated by National Centre for Radio Astrophysics of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and has been in operation since 2002.

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