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

A Dutch-Italian-German staff of astronomers has noticed an enormous glow of radio emission round a cluster of 1000’s of galaxies. They mixed knowledge from 1000’s of LOFAR antennas that had 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 complete galaxy cluster.”

The astronomers studied Abell 2255. That could be a cluster of 1000’s of galaxies a few billion light years from Earth within the path of the constellation of Draco. The brand new photographs are 25 instances sharper and have 60 instances much less noise than photographs taken with a precursor of LOFAR. The staff needed to develop new methods to course of the big quantity of knowledge.

Clusters of galaxies are probably the most densely “populated” areas of the universe. They encompass a whole lot to 1000’s of galaxies. Between the galaxies, there may be rarefied gasoline of high-energy particles and magnetic fields. Little is understood 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 throughout the formation of the cluster,” mentioned 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 distant from the cluster middle.

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

Sooner or later, the researchers wish 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 look at 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.