Astronomers detect record-breaking galactic laser 5bn light years awayLeigh Mc Gowranon April 12, 2022 at 08:24 Silicon RepublicSilicon Republic
Astronomers say they have observed a powerful wave-laser in deep space, which is the most distant of its kind ever detected.
The observation was made through the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa. The team said the laser – also called a megamaser – is roughly 5bn light years from earth.
The lead author of the study, Dr Marcin Glowacki, said megamasers are usually created when two galaxies violently collide.
“When galaxies collide, the gas they contain becomes extremely dense and can trigger concentrated beams of light to shoot out,” Glowacki said in a statement. “This is the first hydroxyl megamaser of its kind to be observed by MeerKAT and the most distant seen by any telescope to date.”
The research team called Laduma has been using this telescope to measure atomic hydrogen in galaxies from the distant past to present day. It is hoped that by studying hydroxl masers and hydrogen, astronomers can better understand how the universe has evolved over time.
Artist’s impression of a hydroxyl maser. Image: IDIA/LADUMA using data from NASA/StSci/SKAO/MolView
The megamaser discovery was made by an international team of astronomers and was detected on the first night of a survey, looking through more than 3,000 hours of observations by the MeerKAT telescope.
“It’s impressive that, with just a single night of observations, we’ve already found a record-breaking megamaser,” Glowacki said. “It shows just how good the telescope is.”
Glowacki said the team has planned more observations of the megamaser, which they have named Nkalakatha, an isiZulu word that means big boss. The team also expects to find similar discoveries from the data collected by the powerful telescope.
“MeerKAT will probably double the known number of these rare phenomena,” co-author of the study Prof Jeremy Darling said in a statement released by the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. “Galaxies were thought to merge more often in the past, and the newly discovered OH megamasers will allow us to test this hypothesis.”
MeerKAT is a precursor instrument for the Square Kilometre Array, which is a global initiative to build the world’s largest radio telescopes in Western Australia and South Africa.
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