Strange Extragalactic Strands Mystify Astronomers

[Judi Lynn]

A distant galaxy has sprouted filaments hundreds of thousands of light-years long—and no one knows why

By Robin George Andrews on April 16, 2020



An image from the MeerKAT radio telescope reveals unusual thread-like features stretching between the twin radio emission lobes of galaxy ESO 137-006. Credit: Rhodes University, INAF and SARAO
The universe is a stupendously vast and puzzling place. Millennia of scientific advances have incrementally increased our understanding of it, but every now and then, scientists still spy something shrouded in almost inexplicable mystery. Now such a puzzle has come in the form of filaments of electromagnetic radiation hundreds of thousands of light-years long—the likes of which have never before been seen.

Using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, astronomers were taking a peek at a bright galaxy near to the center of Norma, a merging galaxy cluster 230 million light-years from Earth. Called ESO 137-006, this particular galaxy shines extremely brightly in radio waves: A supermassive black hole at its heart shoots out twin jets of plasma that reach far beyond the edges of the galaxy’s rim. The charged particles in these jets, moving close to the speed of light, spin around magnetic fields and emit radio waves as they go. Such activity is spectacular but not at all out of the ordinary on cosmic scales.

MeerKAT’s keen radio eyes revealed an unexpected feature, however: titanic threads of radio emissions emerging from the maelstrom. Click here to view the spectacular image. These near-parallel strands seemed to be connecting the swirling lobes at the ends of the galaxy’s two plasma jets to each other. Each thread is gigantic, with the longest one measuring a stunning 261,000 light-years.

Threads like these have been seen elsewhere, including within the center of our own galaxy. But the Milky Way’s own threads—themselves not fully understood—are many thousands of times smaller than the gargantuan ones emerging from ESO 137-006, says Minh Huynh, an astronomer at the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research, who was not involved with the work.

More:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-extragalactic-strands-mystify-astronomers/

[niyad]

1. KNR. Fascinating. Thank you.

[Javaman]

2. Type III civilization. ;)

https://futurism.com/the-kardashev-scale-type-i-ii-iii-iv-v-civilization