Unraveling the Secrets of a Galaxy Cluster: Discover Cosmic Tendrils Stretching Over 200,000 Light-Years!

Astronomers have captured the most detailed image yet of the galaxy cluster Abell 2255. This cluster is about 800 million light-years away and contains between 300 to 500 galaxies. Many of these galaxies are merging and evolving.

One notable feature of Abell 2255 is its “radio galaxies.” These are galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers. These black holes shoot out jets of matter traveling close to the speed of light. Current research is focused on understanding how these jets interact with the surrounding gas and dust, known as the intergalactic medium.

Marco Bond, a researcher at the National Institute for Astrophysics, explained, “These results open the way to new perspectives for studying radio galaxies and the properties of gas in galaxy clusters.” This work could shed light on the evolution of galaxies and the behavior of cosmic materials.

Using the European Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope, the team recorded 56 hours of data at a frequency of 144 MHz. This effort allowed them to create images with an impressive resolution of up to 0.3 arcseconds. They discovered long, filament-like structures extending 260,000 to 360,000 light-years—over three times the width of the Milky Way! These filaments are narrower than our galaxy, suggesting they likely originate from the radio galaxies and are pulled out by turbulent activity within Abell 2255.

Among the radio galaxies studied is the Original Tailed Radio Galaxy, which displays intricate filaments never seen in such detail before. The new images unveiled more features in other radio galaxies in the cluster, like the Goldfish, the Beaver, and the Embryo galaxies. These galaxies have distorted shapes and trailing tails that stretch more than 200,000 light-years.

Emanuele De Rubeis from the University of Bologna noted that modern techniques in interferometry allow us to spot these filamentary structures more frequently. Research like this helps us understand not just the galaxies, but also the hot gas that fills the cluster and the processes that accelerate particles in space.

The team calibrated huge amounts of data to achieve these findings. Each night of observation produced around 4 terabytes of raw data, which swelled to nearly 20 terabytes after calibration. Developing the final images took significant effort, averaging about a month for each night’s data.

This research showcases how advanced tools and methods can reveal new insights about the universe. The team’s work appears in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. As we continue to explore the cosmos, studies like this not only deepen our understanding of distant galaxies but also enhance our grasp of the vast and dynamic intergalactic medium.

Source link