Astronomers have recently discovered a new radio galaxy using the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR). The newly discovered galaxy, named J0011+3217, exhibits peculiar features, including a one-sided secondary lobe. This finding was reported in a research paper published on June 21, 2024, on the pre-print server arXiv.
Radio galaxies emit large amounts of radio waves from their central cores due to the accretion of gas and dust by black holes at their centers, which generates high-energy jets. During their active stage, typical radio galaxies display features such as a core, lobes, jets, and hotspots. However, after this stage passes, these signatures of activity generally disappear as the active galactic nucleus switches off, and the galaxy enters a remnant or dying phase.
In the case of J0011+3217, it is a giant radio galaxy with a one-sided secondary lobe and misaligned giant primary lobes. The secondary lobe has a linear size of approximately 2.77 million light years, which is about 85% of the primary lobe. Such one-sided secondary lobes are extremely rare, with only a few discovered in some X-shaped radio galaxies.
The study also found that J0011+3217 has minor distortions or off-axis diversions, which are more common for wide-angle tails (WATs). WATs are powerful, bent radio sources typically associated with the dominant galaxy in a cluster or group.
The authors of the paper emphasize the need for further studies of J0011+3217 to fully understand its peculiarities. They propose that future studies, including simulations and optical follow-up observations, will be encouraged to measure its detailed parameters and study the conditions under which this peculiar radio galaxy forms.
Reference:
Kumari, S. et al., J0011+3217: A peculiar radio galaxy with one-sided secondary lobe and misaligned giant primary lobes, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2406.14889
Journal information:
arXiv
Citation:
Astronomers discover a peculiar radio galaxy (2024, July 1)
retrieved 1 July 2024
from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/07/240701133355.htm
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