New odd radio circle found with MeerKAT telescope

Using the MeerKAT telescope, astronomers have found a brand new odd radio circle that seems to be related to an elliptical galaxy often called WISEA J021912.43–050501.8. The discovering, which may assist us higher perceive the character of this mysterious radio emission phenomenon, is reported in a paper printed Nov. 26 on the arXiv preprint server.

The so-called odd radio circles (ORCs) are mysterious gigantic rings of radio waves and their origin continues to be unexplained. They are typically noticed as extragalactic circles of steep-spectrum radio emission, with none corresponding emission at different wavelengths, aside from that of the host galaxy. To date, solely a number of such options have been well-defined as ORCs.

Now, a crew of astronomers led by Ray P. Norris of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, reviews the detection of one other ORC. The discovery was made as a part of the MeerKAT International GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) survey—a deep radio survey carried out with the MeerKAT telescope.

“We current the invention of a brand new odd radio circle (ORC J0219–0505) in 1.2 GHz radio continuum information from the MIGHTEE survey taken with the MeerKAT,” the researchers wrote within the paper.

The newfound ORC, designated ORC J0219–0505, has been recognized as an edge-brightened ring of radio emission surrounding a compact radio supply within the middle. This ring seems to be full of faint diffuse emission, with hints of some construction. Moreover, the observations additionally detected some faint diffuse emission extending to the south-east of the ring.

According to the examine, the host galaxy of the brand new ORC is the huge elliptical galaxy WISEA J021912.43–050501.8, which showcases prolonged options seen in optical and infrared photographs. Such prolonged options are attribute of disturbance by a merger or interplay, which means that ORC J0219–0505 could also be a shell of radio emission ensuing from electrons energized by a spherical shock from a galaxy merger.

The diameter of ORC J0219–0505 was measured to be 35 arcseconds, which corresponds to 371,600 mild years (assuming the host galaxy’s redshift of 0.196), whereas its width was discovered to be roughly 107,500 mild years.

The researchers famous that ORC J0219–0505 is far smaller and fainter than the beforehand discovered single ORCs. They added that the invention of this ORC in a deep however comparatively small-area radio survey signifies that there’s a fainter inhabitants of ORCs that is still to be unveiled by MeerKAT or different radio telescopes.

The authors of the paper plan additional investigation of ORC J0219–0505, which can be targeted on its morphological options, polarization and spectral properties. Such a examine may very well be important to raised perceive the method that generates ORCs.

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