💡What you need to know:
- The signal originates from the center of Tukanae 47
- This star cluster is visible to the naked eye and was first discovered in the 1700s.
- The signal could come from a black hole or pulsar
Perth, Australia — Scientists say they have discovered a new radio signal emanating from the center of an ancient star cluster. This signal emanates from the center of the 47 Tukanae star cluster, the second brightest globular cluster in the night sky.
The discovery is credited to a research team led by members of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at Australia’s Curtin University. The team also achieved an important milestone by creating the most sensitive radio image of an ancient star cluster to date.
“Globular clusters are very old, massive balls of stars found around the Milky Way,” explains astronomer Dr. Arash Bahramian. media release. “They are incredibly dense, with tens to millions of stars packed together in a sphere.”
“Our images are of 47 Tucanae, one of the most massive globular clusters in the galaxy. It has more than a million stars and a very bright, very dense core.”
This ultra-sensitive image was produced after more than 450 hours of observations using CSIRO’s Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), and is the deepest and most sensitive image ever collected by an Australian observatory. It is recorded as a high radio wave image. radio telescope.
Researchers note that 47 Tucanidae, which can be seen with the naked eye and were first cataloged in the 1700s, have revealed faint radio signals at their centers through detailed imaging. This signal has not been detected until now.
“First, the 47 Tukanae may contain black holes with masses between the supermassive black holes found at the centers of galaxies and stellar black holes formed when stars collapse. “Yes,” said lead author Dr. Alessandro Paduano.
“Intermediate-mass black holes are thought to exist within globular clusters, but have not yet been clearly detected. If this signal turns out to be a black hole, it would be a very important discovery and This will be the first time that a black hole has been detected using radio waves.”
Another explanation, Paduano said, is a pulsar, a rotating neutron star that emits radio waves.
“This is an interesting discovery scientifically, as a pulsar so close to the cluster center could be used to search for as yet undetected central black holes,” Paduano explains.
The researchers also highlight the ultra-sensitive images as a harbinger of what researchers can expect from the SKA radio telescope. These telescopes are currently under construction by the SKA Observatory (SKAO) in Australia and South Africa and will become the world’s largest radio telescope array. They are expected to revolutionize our understanding of the universe and address some of the most pressing scientific problems of our time.
“This project stretched our software to its limits in terms of both data management and processing. It was really exciting to see the richness of science that these techniques enabled.” says author Dr. Tim Galvin. CSIRO scientist. “Alessandro’s work is the culmination of many years of research and technological advances, and ATCA’s ultra-deep images of 47 Tukanae bodies are just the beginning of discoveries to come.”
This study astrophysical journal.
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Southwest News Service writer Stephen Beach contributed to this report.