Astronauts found a one-of-a-kind, powerful radio wave laser in space, known as a megamaser. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
What is a megamaser?
A megamaser is an astronomical laser beaming out microwave emission instead of visible light. Hence, the ‘m’ replaces ‘l’. Researchers were successful in spotting a megamaser about 5 billion light-years away from us. To reach Earth, the light from this laser has travelled 36 thousand billion billion miles. It was observed by a team of international astronomers thanks to the MeerKAT. The MeerKAT is also known as the Karoo Array telescope and is a part of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
According to Marcin Glowacki, a megamaser is born when two galaxies collide. Glowacki is the leader of the research team. He is also a research associate at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia. “When galaxies collide, the gas they contain becomes extremely dense and can trigger concentrated beams of light to shoot out,” stated the researcher.
Meet Nkalakatha: A one-of-a-kind large laser
The megamaser, named Nkalakatha translates to ‘big boss’ in isiZulu, the Bantu language of Zulus in South Africa. “It’s impressive that, with just a single night of observations, we’ve already found a record-breaking megamaser. It shows just how good the telescope is,” stated Glowacki. Additionally, it is a hydroxyl megamaser. Hydroxyl is a chemical group containing hydrogen and oxygen atom. Moreover, hydroxyl compounds are common in merging galaxy regions.
“MeerKAT observed this light or hydroxyl megamaser, for the first time. We have follow-up observations of the megamaser planned and hope to make many more discoveries,” added Glowacki. The survey spanning over 3,000 hours was highly impressive. Precursor to the transcontinental Square Kilometre Array (SKA), MeerKAT includes an array of 64 radio dishes. Moreover, it is sensitive to the faintest radio light.