Astronomers reveal clearest image yet of mysterious ‘radio circle’
They are astronomy’s newest mystery objects, ‘odd radio circles’ a million light years across that were first spotted two years ago.
Now, using the world’s most capable radio telescopes, astronomers have revealed the clearest image yet of one of the weirdest phenomena in space.
They definitively spotted five odd radio circles, or ORCs, and discovered that all of them have central galaxies containing active supermassive black holes.
This hints at the idea that the circles might be formed by some galactic process.
When they were first revealed in 2020 by the ASKAP radio telescope, owned and operated by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, odd radio circles quickly became objects of fascination.
Ideas on what causes them have ranged from galactic shockwaves to the throats of wormholes, but there are now three leading theories, thanks to the new images captured by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT radio telescope (seen below):
- They could be the remnant of a huge explosion at the centre of their host galaxy, like the merger of two supermassive black holes;
- They could be powerful jets of energetic particles spewing out of the galaxy’s centre; or
- They might be the result of a starburst ‘termination shock’ from the production of stars in the galaxy.
Experts say it will take more observations with more sensitive radio telescopes to figure out which of these explanations is correct.
The Square Kilometre Array, a huge array of radio telescopes with sections in both Australia and South Africa, is expected to find many more ORCs and help confirm what they really are once it is fully constructed in 2028.
Dr Jordan Collier of the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, who compiled the image from MeerKAT data, said continuing to observe these odd radio circles will provide researchers with more clues.
‘People often want to explain their observations and show that it aligns with our best knowledge. To me, it’s much more exciting to discover something new, that defies our current understanding,’ Dr Collier said.
The rings are enormous — about a million light years across, which is 16 times bigger than our own galaxy. Despite this, odd radio circles are hard to see.
To date ORCs have only been detected using radio telescopes, with no signs of them when researchers have looked for them using optical, infrared, or X-ray telescopes.
Professor Ray Norris from Western Sydney University and CSIRO, one of the authors on the new study, said only five odd radio circles have ever been revealed in space.
He added: ‘We know ORCs are rings of faint radio emissions surrounding a galaxy with a highly active black hole at its centre, but we don’t yet know what causes them, or why they are so rare.’
Professor Elaine Sadler, chief scientist of CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility, which includes ASKAP, said for now, ASKAP and MeerKAT are working together to find and describe these objects quickly and efficiently.
‘Nearly all astronomy projects are made better by international collaboration — both with the teams of people involved and the technology available,’ Professor Sadler said.
‘ASKAP and MeerKAT are both precursors to the international SKA project. Our developing understanding of odd radio circles is enabled by these complementary telescopes working together.’
To really understand odd radio circles, scientists will need access to even more sensitive radio telescopes such as those of the SKA Observatory, which is supported by more than a dozen countries including the UK, Australia, South Africa, France, Canada, China and India.
‘No doubt the SKA telescopes, once built, will find many more ORCs and be able to tell us more about the lifecycle of galaxies,’ Professor Norris said.
‘Until the SKA becomes operational, ASKAP and MeerKAT are set to revolutionise our understanding of the Universe faster than ever before.’
ASKAP is located on Wajarri Yamatji country in Western Australia, and MeerKAT is located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
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itsme
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That’s Gate’s brain
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RockyTSquirrel
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Hey,
Didn’t I see that, on a Star Trek episode…. 😉
. . .
(as requested, this is an opinion and or SARCASM)
“Let’s Go, Brandon” (F.J.B.)
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Robert Beatty
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It is interesting to compare PSI article “Astronomers discover massive radio galaxy” of 19 February 2022” which was 16 million light years across, with this image which is 100 million light years wide. IMO the previous image of Alcyoneus galaxy showed two black hole proton streams attaching to adjacent gravispheres. See https://www.bosmin.com/PSL/ConnectedGravispheres.pdf This happens because the proton streams finish up with north and south poles on either side, which connect with pole matching steams from adjacent gravispheres. However, if there are no adjacent gravispheres, (as evidenced by the 100 million light year diameter) the proton streams will curl around and join onto themselves. Hence the ball shaped image.
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Robert Beatty
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Spiral galaxies range between 16,000 and 326,000 ly in diameter. This radio circle discovery at 1,000,000 ly across is well and truely out on its own. The object must exist away from other galaxies and might indicate a mechanism for how galaxies form in the first place?
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Herb Rose
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Hi Robert,
Or it could be the ghost of a galaxy after a quasar.
Herb
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Allan Shelton
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Please note the following….
“To really understand odd radio circles, scientists will need access to even more
sensitive radio telescopes such as those of the SKA Observatory,”
IOW, like AGW, more money please.
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Mark Tapley
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Hello Shelton:
If they need more money they should have petitioned Larry (((Fink)) at Black Rock to get some of the trillions in “stimulus” dumped on his corporate entities by his buddies at the banking cartel, all approved by our fake congress. Or perhaps a small amount of the hundreds of billions, congress has allocated to their insider friends at big Pharma to fight the fake virus. Gates has over doubled his wealth to over a hundred billion in the last ten years from the fake vaccine racket. Another possibility might be the 11 million per day Jewmerica gives to the terrorist state of Israel. This “defense” program for the Khazar terrorists has been going on since 1947, so maybe they could spare a little, although with inflation, the cost of buying the shabbas butt goy congress continues to escalate. As a last resort, I suggest appealing to the save the Ukrainian orphans fund for a few crumbs that may fall from the table in this fake conflict. However with the Zionist insiders lining their pockets with billions (including the Biden family) and with all the Russian and Ukrainian gov. officials and crisis actors to pay off, radio circle exploration may just be another cosmic conundrum waiting in the universe.
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