Radio signals nearly 9 billion light-years captured by telescope: Researchers say they have captured a radio signal from the most distant galaxy ever observed. The signal, had a specific wavelength, according to a McGill University news release published last week. Which is called the 21 cm line. Helping to answer questions about the early universe.
The radio signal, captured by the Giant Meter wave Radio Telescope in India, was in a galaxy known as SDSSJ0826+5630.
Researchers from McGill University and the Indian Institute of Science studied the signal and found that it was emitted then. When the universe was 4.9 billion years old. “This is the equivalent of looking back in time 8.8 billion years,” said Arnab Chakravarty, a post-doctoral researcher at McGill.
The researchers said that the telescope was able to pick up the distant signal. Because it was deflected by another galaxy located between the signal and the telescope. “This effectively results in a magnification of the signal by a factor of 30, allowing the telescope to pick it up,” said Nirupam Roy, co-author of the study and associate professor at the Indian Institute of Science.
This signal bending is called gravitational lensing, and it can help researchers observe the cosmic evolution of distant galaxies and stars.
“A galaxy emits different types of radio signals. Until now, it was only possible to capture this particular signal from a nearby galaxy. Which limits our knowledge to those galaxies close to Earth,” Chakraborty said. “But thanks to the help of a naturally occurring phenomenon called gravitational lensing, we may be able to capture a faint signal from a record-breaking distance. This will help us understand the structure of galaxies at much greater distances from Earth.”
The researchers were able to determine this. that the atomic mass of hydrogen gas in SDSSJ0826+5630 is about twice the mass of the stars we see. “Hydrogen gas” provides the basic fuel for star formation in a galaxy, the researchers wrote in the study. “Knowledge of the cosmological evolution of this neutral gas is needed to understand the evolution of galaxies on cosmic time.”
Research suggests that scientists may be able to probe the cosmic evolution of neutral gas with low-frequency radio telescopes in the near future.
