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Telescope Discovers Record breaking Galaxy Space Laser

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2024-03-09 14:14:21
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A powerful telescope in South Africa has detected a space laser 5 billion light-years away from Earth, known as the "megamaser". Scientists named it Nkalakatha, which means "big boss" in Zulu language.

Nkalakatha is the farthest hydroxyl giant detected so far, discovered by the MeerKAT telescope on the first night of the survey, which is expected to include 3000 hours of observation. The team of scientists working for the International Radio Astronomy Research Center published their work in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"Impressively, in just one night of observation, we have discovered a record breaking giant celestial body," Dr. Marcin Glowacki of the Curtin University node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy said in a press release. It shows how good the telescope is.

When two galaxies collide violently with each other, causing a burst of light, Megamaser is usually produced. MeerKAT aims to capture the kind of light emitted by Nkalakatha - according to astronomers, this is in the "radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum".

Looking ahead, astronomers plan to use MeerKAT to delve deeper into the narrow parts of the sky, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of how the universe has evolved over time.

"OH giants are like bright light, saying that this is a collision of galaxies, creating new stars and feeding huge black holes," said Jeremy Darling, a professor at the University of Colorado who is a giant expert and co-author of the study.

Scientists point out in their work that telescopes are very new, so this discovery is expected to become one of the more upcoming discoveries.

Source: Laser Net

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