Puzzling radio sign unveils a galaxy cluster’s core

Astronomers observing a mysterious radio halo from the galaxy cluster Abell 1213 have uncovered one thing sudden. Whereas the radio indicators themselves stay puzzling, they’ve allowed researchers to unveil the core of the galaxy cluster, proper all the way down to the central galaxy contained inside. 

Much more intriguing in regards to the discovery is that the researchers discovered proof of mergers between the galaxies with the cluster. The off-center nature of the radio halo has additionally offered scientists with fairly a puzzle, as most radio indicators of this kind act extra consistent with the gasoline and mud that make up the “intracluster medium.”

By using information from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and X-ray information from the XMM-Newton house telescope, astronomers have been capable of efficiently map the construction and dynamics of the intracluster medium. Utilizing that information, the astronomers have been additionally capable of decide that the mysterious radio halo is the scale of round 1.66 million light-years however that it doesn’t comply with the x-ray emissions within the space. 

This has left a number of astronomers concerned within the discovery baffled and looking for solutions. Additionally they detected a radio sign they consider to be the relic of a galactic merger between Abel 1213’s central galaxy and one other galaxy. Nevertheless, this relic doesn’t look like the reason for the baffling radio halo. As an alternative, it’s simply one other piece of a a lot bigger puzzle that scientists try to resolve. 

The invention additionally led scientists to uncover that star formation in Abel 1213 will not be tied to the perimeters of the galactic cluster. As an alternative, star-forming galaxies look like current all through the cluster, which some consider could suggest that the cluster types when a number of completely different teams clump collectively. This doesn’t look like liable for the radio halo, both. 

The astronomers recorded their findings in a paper at the moment out there on arXiv. As a way to decide precisely what’s inflicting the mysterious radio halo, astronomers say we’ll want to look at the galactic cluster with deeper x-ray indicators. Future observations of those huge galaxy clusters with James Webb and different telescopes might present extra information about them.