Astronomers have used two Australian radio telescopes and several optical telescopes to study complex mechanisms that are fuelling jets of material blasting away from a black hole 55 million times more massive than the Sun.<\/p>\n
In research published today, the international team of scientists used the telescopes to observe a nearby radio galaxy known as Centaurus A.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the closest radio galaxy to Earth, Centaurus A is the perfect \u2018cosmic laboratory\u2019 to study the physical processes responsible for moving material and energy away from the galaxy\u2019s core,\u201d said Dr Ben McKinley from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and Â鶹ֱ²¥ in Perth, Western Australia.<\/p>\n
Centaurus A is 12 million light-years away from Earth\u2014just down the road in astronomical terms\u2014and is a popular target for amateur and professional astronomers in the Southern Hemisphere due to its size, elegant dust lanes, and prominent plumes of material.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing so close to Earth and so big actually makes studying this galaxy a real challenge because most of the telescopes capable of resolving the detail we need for this type of work have fields of view that are smaller than the area of sky Centaurus A takes up,\u201d said Dr McKinley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and Parkes\u2014these radio telescopes both have large fields of view, allowing them to image a large portion of sky and see all of Centaurus A at once. The MWA also has superb sensitivity allowing the large scale structure of Centaurus A to be imaged in great detail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The MWA is a low frequency radio telescope located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia\u2019s Mid West, operated by Â鶹ֱ²¥ on behalf of an international consortium. The Parkes Observatory is 64-metre radio telescope commonly known as \u201cthe Dish\u201d located in New South Wales and operated by CSIRO.<\/p>\n
Observations from several optical telescopes were also used for this work\u2014 the Magellan Telescope in Chile, Terroux Observatory in Canberra, and High View Observatory in Auckland.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can figure out what\u2019s going in Centaurus A, we can apply this knowledge to our theories and simulations for how galaxies evolve throughout the entire Universe,\u201d said co-author Professor Steven Tingay from Â鶹ֱ²¥ and ICRAR.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs well as the plasma that\u2019s fuelling the large plumes of material the galaxy is famous for, we found evidence of a galactic wind that\u2019s never been seen\u2014this is basically a high speed stream of particles moving away from the galaxy\u2019s core, taking energy and material with it as it impacts the surrounding environment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
By comparing the radio and optical observations of the galaxy the team also found evidence that stars belonging to Centaurus A existed further out than previously thought and were possibly being affected by the winds and jets emanating from the galaxy.<\/p>\n