Demonstrating the power of citizen science and the involvement of common people in the field, a group of Indian astronomers has discovered a monster blackhole that was spewing fiery jets on another neighbouring galaxy.
Called a monster blackhole, it is known to prevent the formation of new stars inside elliptical galaxies. The said blackhole was hosted in a galaxy named RAD12, newly discovered by RAD@home Citizen Science Research Collaboratory.
RAD12 was first discovered in 2013 jointly using the optical data Sloan Digitised Sky Survey and radio telescope Very Large Array. But it was during the detailed studies thereafter, using Pune-based Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and other telescopes from around the world, that scientists obtained a better understanding of the blackhole archaeology. GMRT is operated by TIFR-National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA).
GMRT, scientists said, was sensitive to capturing the radio emissions emerging from the aged and magnetised plasma rejected by these monster black holes.
тАЬThe monster blackholes spew gigantic and firey radio plasma and destroy the cold molecular gas тАФ the key ingredient for the new star formation. RAD12 is unlike any known galaxy so far,тАЭ the researchers stated in their study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
South Africa-based radio telescope MeerKAT helped the scientists team тАФ comprising Professor Ananda Hota, Pratik Dabhade, Sravani Vaddi and Megha Rajoria тАФ in deciphering the structure, the size and the extent of the plasma jets which assumed the shape of a mushroom bubble around a relatively large galaxy.
These highly magnetic plasma usually eject during a process when stars and gaseous matter gets dragged through the accretion disc.
Optical data of RAD12 obtained from the Canada-France Hawaii optical telescope confirmed that both galaxies were located at a distance of one billion light years and scientists have predicted their merger in the next one billion years from now.
