Astronomers have spotted the farthest and brightest “cosmic laser,” or megamaser, ever seen, and it’s still exploding as a result of a collision of galaxies that happened when the universe was halfway through its current age.
This star system, named HATLAS J142935.3–002836, emits light that should have traveled about 8 billion years before arriving. The MeerKAT radio telescope South Africa. The laser is essentially a hydroxyl megamaser, which means that it is similar to a laser but is detected in microwave or radio waves instead of visible light. The prefix “hydroxyl” refers to the fact that this region’s laser is created when hydroxyl molecules, each made up of one oxygen and one hydrogen atom, bump into each other in a dense, colliding gas. constellations.
Despite its impressive brightness, HATLAS J142935.3–002836 would not have been visible had it not been for the influence of gravity fabric of space, aka the concept of magnetic lens. This event was first mentioned by Albert Einstein in his magnum opus theory of how gravity works, general relationshipback in 1915, and is still an important tool for astronomers exploring the universe.
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Gravitational lensing describes what happens when light from a distant source, our megamaser in this case, passes through warps in spacetime caused by a massive object, such as a cluster of galaxies. As light approaches a bending object, or magnetic lens, its straight path is bent more and more. As a result, light from the same object can reach our telescopes at different times, and this magnifies the background object.
“We discovered a very distant hydroxyl megamaser using the MeerKAT radio telescope. The signal comes from a red-hot galaxy and is strongly magnified by gravitational lensing,” team leader Thato Manamela of the University of Pretoria told Space.com. “This magnification makes it easier to see smoke, and allows us to study a process that would otherwise be too faint to see.”
Manamela added that megamasers are rare based on studies of the nearby universe, they are usually found in bright galaxies with a lot of gas and dust. These orbits are usually the result of two or more star clusters colliding and merging to give birth to a new “daughter” cluster. Encounters like this lead to intense star formation, as well as creating physical conditions that allow hydroxyl molecules to increase radio emission.
“This megamasser is unusual because it is so far away. That means we have been observing it since the very beginning of the universe,” Manamela continued. “The sign also has a magnetic lens, which amplifies the light and gives a natural effect. This combination makes it one of the most distant and powerful hydroxyl megasers known.”
The fact that volcanic eruptions from this interstellar collision indicate the presence of molecularly dense gas and intense activity.
“By studying the emission processes, we can learn about the gas kinematics, the physical conditions in the galaxy, and the processes that drive star formation,” Manamela said. “Megamasers can also serve as indicators of two active galactic nuclei or pairs of supermassive black holes, systems expected to generate gravitational waves.”
“This will help us understand how common megamasers were in the early universe and how they relate to stellar evolution and star formation,” Manamela concluded.
The team’s research has been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters and is available as a preprint on the paper’s archive server. arXiv.
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