The ‘USS Jellyfish’ emits strange radio waves from a distant galaxy cluster
Spanning 1.2 million light-years, the entity broadcasts a never-before-seen pattern.
Low-frequency radio waves (red, orange, yellow, white) outline a huge “jellyfish,” 1.2 million light-years across, in the galaxy cluster Abell 2877, whose center emits X-rays (magenta).
The ‘USS Jellyfish’ emits strange radio waves from a distant galaxy cluster
Strange radio emissions from a distant galaxy cluster take the shape of a gigantic jellyfish, complete with head and tentacles. Moreover, the cosmic jellyfish emits only the lowest radio frequencies and can’t be detected at higher frequencies. The unusual shape and radio spectrum tell a tale of intergalactic gas washing over galaxies and gently revving up electrons spewed out by gargantuan black holes long ago. Spanning 1.2 million light-years, the strange entity lies in Abell 2877, a cluster of galaxies 340 million light-years from Earth.
The ‘USS Jellyfish’ emits strange radio waves from a distant galaxy cluster
Johnston-Hollitt’s colleague Torrance Hodgson, a graduate student at Curtin, discovered the USS Jellyfish while analyzing data from the Murchison Widefield Array, a complex of radio telescopes in Australia that detect low-frequency radio waves. These radio waves are more than a meter long and correspond to photons, particles of light, with the lowest energies. Remarkably, the USS Jellyfish is about 30 times brighter at 87.5 megahertz — a frequency similar to that of an FM radio station — than at 185.5 MHz.
The Murchison Widefield Array consists of 4,096 radio antennas grouped into 256 “tiles” (one pictured) spanning several kilometers in a remote region of Western Australia.
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