In a remarkable breakthrough, astronomers have identified the biggest galaxy ever discovered. Alcyoneus is a huge radio galaxy that stretches 5 megaparsecs into space and is 3 billion light-years distant.
This structure is the biggest known structure of galactic origin, measuring 16.3 million light-years in length. The discovery highlights the lack of knowledge about these colossi in humanity and what causes their incredible development.
It might, however, open the door for a better understanding of not only huge radio galaxies but also the intergalactic medium that floats through space. Giant radio galaxies are simply one more mystery in an otherwise perplexing cosmos.
A host galaxy (a cluster of stars surrounding a galactic nucleus containing a supermassive black hole) and gigantic jets and lobes erupting from the galactic centre make up these objects. These jets and lobes interact with the intergalactic medium and operate as synchrotrons, speeding up electrons that create radio emissions.
The Alcyoneus galaxy was found using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite observatory and the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR), a network of nearly 20,000 radio antennas located in 52 locations throughout Europe.
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According to their results, which were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the galaxy is a normal elliptical galaxy that is around 240 billion times more massive than the Sun. These features, as per the research, have the potential to give further information about what drives the expansion of radio wave-producing lobes.
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