The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope was able to locate a signal originating from a distant galaxy, the first of its kind. Read to know more about the signal from a galaxy far far away.
All about the signal detected by the Radio telescope
The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) located in Pune, India detected a radio signal from a remote galaxy. Astronomers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Canada’s McGill University are behind the detection. Their findings are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. “The astronomical distance over which such a signal has been picked up is the largest so far by a large margin. This is also the first confirmed detection of strong lensing of 21 cm emission from a galaxy,” stated the IISc.
As per reports, the signal originated from the atomic hydrogen of an ‘extremely distant’ galaxy. According to IIS, atomic hydrogen makes the basic fuel needed for the formation of a star. “When hot ionized gas from the surrounding medium of a galaxy falls onto the galaxy, the gas cools and forms atomic hydrogen, which then becomes molecular hydrogen. And eventually leads to the formation of stars. Therefore, understanding the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time requires tracing the evolution of neutral gas at different cosmological epochs,” explained ISSc.
More on the discovery
As per the study, the signal picked up by the radio telescope was extremely weak. However, it is significant as detecting emissions from a distant galaxy is nearly impossible. “Until now, the most distant galaxy detected using 21 cm emission was at redshift z=0.376. Which corresponds to a look-back time – the time elapsed between detecting the signal and its original emission – of 4.1 billion years,” stated IISc. The redshift is the change in the wavelength of the signal based on its movement and location.