An international team of astronomers has undertaken radio and optical investigations of GRG-J223301+131502, a strange gigantic radio galaxy. The observational campaign's findings shed further insight into the features of this galaxy and revealed its extraordinary jet structure. The findings are detailed in an article published on arXiv.org on September 26. Giant radio galaxies (GRGs) are radio galaxies having a total estimated linear length of at least 2.3 million light years. They are uncommon things that develop in low-density habitats. GRGs are useful for astronomers studying the creation and development of radio sources.
So far, around a thousand GRGs have been discovered, with just ten exceeding 10 million light-years in size. J1420-0545 is the biggest, with a proper length of nearly 16 million light years. As a result, GRGs and the rest of the megaparsec-scale radio galaxies are thought to represent the universe's greatest single galaxy-induced phenomenon. GRG-J223301+131502 (GRG-J2233+1315 for short) is a massive radio galaxy discovered in 2017 as part of the Search and Analysis of GRGs with Associated Nuclei (SAGAN) project. It has a redshift of 0.093. It is hosted by SDSSJ223301.30+131502.5, an S0-a type galaxy with a large diffuse star halo, and has a total estimated linear size of roughly 5.57 million light years.
Previous research of GRG-J2233+1315 discovered that it is located in a dense cluster environment, which contradicts current notions that GRGs are often found in a sparse environment. To confirm this, a team of astronomers led by Pratik Dabhade of Sorbonne University in Paris, France, used the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), as well as the William Herschel Telescope, to conduct extensive multi-frequency radio studies of GRG-J2233+1315 (WHT). The deep and high-resolution radio scans revealed a massive jet, around 772,000 light years in size, erupting from GRG-J2233+radio 1315's core and leading to a kink stretching 326,000 light years. The photos also demonstrate that the galaxy has lobes with no obvious hotspots and resembles a barbell, hence the astronomers named GRG-J2233+1315 the Barbell GRG. These discovered lobes have magnetic field strengths of roughly 5 G and spectral ages ranging from 110 to 200 million years.
The findings revealed that the Barbell GRG has a redshift of around 0.99 and a linear dimension that is over 6 million light-years greater than previously anticipated. According to the findings, the host galaxy has a comparatively modest star production rate of roughly 0.001 solar masses per year. In summarizing the findings, the paper's authors emphasized the significance of their findings for future research. Our study's finding of the 100 kpc kink structure presents a once-in-a-lifetime chance to test several MHD [magnetohydrodynamic] theories on enormous scales... The researchers found that this GRG with two-sided, large-scale jets with a kink and diffuse outer lobes dwelling in a cluster environment gives an opportunity to investigate the structure and growth of GRGs in varied contexts.
Journal Information: Pratik Dabhade et al, Barbell shaped giant radio galaxy with ~100 kpc kink in the jet. arXiv:2209.13059v1 [astro-ph.GA], arxiv.org/abs/2209.13059