One Of The Largest Giant Radio Galaxies Ever Detected Discovered

First Posted: Feb 14, 2017 03:10 AM EST

Astronomers discovered a new giant radio galaxy that could be one of the largest giant radio galaxies (GRG) ever detected. It is associated with the galaxy triplet called UGC 9555 and is about 820 million lightyears away from the planet Earth.

LOFAR MSSS: Discovery of a 2.56 Mpc giant radio galaxy associated with a… https://t.co/A0wv9OP0xe pic.twitter.com/SSXSdL7O5U

— arXiver (@arXiver) February 7, 2017

The findings of the discovery were printed online on arXiv.org on Feb. 6, 2017. It was led by the international team of astronomers headed by Alex Clarke of the Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics in Manchester, U.K. The astronomers based their findings on the data provided by the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR). The team stated that it reports on the discovery in the LOFAR Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS) of a giant radio galaxy (GRG) with a projected size of about 2.56 Mpc in the sky, according to Phys.org.

The researchers said that the newly detected GRG has integrated flux density at 142 MHz of 1.54 Jy over the whole dual-lobe emission. This includes the underlying background point sources that provide a total luminosity at 142 MHz of 11.6 septillions W/Hz. On the other hand, they could not yet classify the class of the new GRG whether it is a Fanaraoff and Riley Lass I (FRI) or the Class II (FRII).

The team stated that they cannot clearly classify this GRG as an FR-I or FR-II source based on its morphology in the MSSS and archival radio data. It further stated that there are no conclusive enhancements of emission from the resolution of the MSSS data from which to use the standard Fanaroff-Riley classification.

The GRG is a type of radio galaxies, which are kinds of active galaxy that are very luminous at radio wavelengths. Its radio emission is due to synchrotron process. These galaxies have an overall projected linear length exceeding 6.5 million lightyears. These are significant for astronomers to examine the formation and the evolution of radio sources.