LOFAR antennas unveil giant glow of radio emission surrounding cluster of galaxies

A Dutch-Italian-German workforce of astronomers has noticed an enormous glow of radio emission round a cluster of hundreds of galaxies. They mixed knowledge from hundreds of LOFAR antennas that have been centered for 18 nights on an space the dimensions of 4 full moons.

That is the primary time astronomers have been in a position to seize radio emission from such a big space for such a very long time and in such element. They revealed their findings Wednesday (Nov. 2) within the journal Science Advances within the article “Magnetic fields and relativistic electrons fill total galaxy cluster.”

The astronomers studied Abell 2255. That may be a cluster of hundreds of galaxies a couple of billion light years from Earth within the course of the constellation of Draco. The brand new photographs are 25 occasions sharper and have 60 occasions much less noise than photographs taken with a precursor of LOFAR. The workforce needed to develop new strategies to course of the big quantity of knowledge.

Clusters of galaxies are essentially the most densely “populated” areas of the universe. They include tons of to hundreds of galaxies. Between the galaxies, there may be rarefied gasoline of high-energy particles and magnetic fields. Little is thought concerning the origin of this gasoline and the way the particles and magnetic fields affect one another.

Turbulence and shocks

“Based mostly on the brand new photographs and our calculations, we predict that the radio emission from Abell 2255 has been generated in the course of the formation of the cluster,” stated analysis chief Andrea Botteon (Leiden College, the Netherlands and Università di Bologna / INAF, Italy). He provides that it’s the first time that astronomers studied these processes very far-off from the cluster middle.

“In our concept, we assume that the particles are accelerated by the large turbulence and shocks produced in the course of the formation of the cluster. In flip, these motions can even amplify the magnetic fields.”

Sooner or later, the researchers need to goal the LOFAR telescopes and yet-to-be-built telescopes such because the Sq. Kilometer Array for longer durations of time at different clusters of galaxies. As well as, they intend to watch Abell 2255 in additional element. By doing so, they hope to be taught extra concerning the so-called cosmic net that interconnects clusters of galaxies.