Researchers have found the most powerful and distant “odd radio circle” (ORC) yet seen. This strange cosmic structure is 7.5 billion light-years away from Earth.
This huge structure, called RAD J131346.9+500320, is about 10 times bigger than the Milky Way Galaxy and is the second ORC ever observed to have two concentric rings. It is an amazing 978,000 light-years across.
Citizen scientists helped make the discovery through the RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory (India). This shows how important it is for the people to get involved in cutting-edge space research. This new discovery goes against long-held ideas about how galaxies change over time and how black holes work.
ORCs are weak radio waves that come from rings around galaxies. They are among of the strangest things we know about in the universe. Anna Kapinska of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory first saw the event in 2019 while looking at data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).
Ananda Hota from the University of Mumbai, who led the study, stated, “ORCs are some of the strangest and most beautiful cosmic structures we’ve ever seen. They may hold important clues about how galaxies and black holes evolve together.”
Researchers had previously thought that ORCs might emerge when supermassive black holes merge or galaxies collide and send forth shockwaves. The most recent study, which came out in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, offers a fresh explanation: these rings could be formed by superwind outflows from spiral host radio galaxies.
Dr. Hota said, “This work shows how professional astronomers and citizen scientists can work together to make new discoveries in science.”
Dr. Pratik Dabhade, a co-author from the National Centre for Nuclear Research in Warsaw, Poland, said that these results show a larger group of cosmic structures that are all connected.
He remarked, “These discoveries show that ORCs and radio rings are not just strange things on their own; they are part of a larger family of strange plasma structures that are shaped by black hole jets, winds, and their surroundings.”
“The fact that citizen scientists found them shows how important it is for people to be able to recognize patterns, even in the age of machine learning.”
This discovery not only adds to the enigma of strange radio circles, but it also shows how citizen research is becoming more important in studying the universe’s most intriguing events.