Podcaster: Richard Drumm
Title: UNAWE Space Scoop – Natural Binocular Finds A Baby Galaxy On A Cosmic Merry-Go-Round
Organization: 365 Days Of Astronomy
Link : http://365daysofastronomy.org/ ; https://www.spacescoop.org/sl/scoops/2106/natural-binocular-finds-baby-galaxy-on-a-cosmic-roundabout/
Description: Space scoop, news for children.
Galaxy clusters are basically made of:
- Dark matter which can only be detected with light passing near it, and,
- Hot plasma, a gas so hot that its atoms fly apart!
As galaxies in a cluster slam into each other and the surrounding matter, they create bow shocks, causing movement of the plasma around these clusters. This movement interacts with the invisible magnetic fields creating magnetic walls around the galaxies inside the cluster.
These walls are very hard to detect, and, until now, astronomers had to wait for something to interact with them so they could make indirect observations of these magnetic walls. As these interactions are really hard to see, understanding these magnetic fields is not easy.
But now, with the maps provided by the high-energy jets coming out of black holes, the task can be a little easier.
Bio: Richard Drumm is President of the Charlottesville Astronomical Society and President of 3D – Drumm Digital Design, a video production company with clients such as Kodak, Xerox and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. He was an observer with the UVa Parallax Program at McCormick Observatory in 1981 & 1982. He has found that his greatest passion in life is public outreach astronomy and he pursues it at every opportunity.
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: David Bowes, Dustin A Ruoff, Brett Duane, Kim Hay, Nik Whitehead, Timo Sievänen, Michael Freedman, Paul Fischer, Rani Bush, Karl Bewley, Joko Danar, Steven Emert, Frank Tippin, Steven Jansen, Barbara Geier, Don Swartwout, James K. Wood, Katrina Ince, Michael Lewinger, Phyllis Simon Foster, Nicolo DePierro, Tim Smith.
Please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.
Or please visit our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy
Transcript:
This is the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. Today we bring you a new episode in our Space Scoop series. This show is produced in collaboration with Universe Awareness, a program that strives to inspire every child with our wonderful cosmos.
Today’s story is…
A hidden map of the invisible magnetic Universe
Astronomers have found a new way to study groups of galaxies.
This new technique can open windows to new information about galaxy clusters, Information that we didn’t know before.
Remember those jets of high-energy particles that a black hole spits out from the center of a galaxy?
Well, they reveal a map of the otherwise-invisible magnetic fields between and within groups of galaxies.
This is especially true for jets coming out of the supermassive black hole in the brightest galaxy in any cluster.
Galaxy clusters are basically made of:
1. Dark matter which can only be detected with light passing near it, and,
2. Hot plasma, a gas so hot that its atoms fly apart!
As galaxies in a cluster slam into each other and the surrounding matter, they create bow shocks, causing movement of the plasma around these clusters.
This movement interacts with the invisible magnetic fields creating magnetic walls around the galaxies inside the cluster.
These walls are very hard to detect, and, until now, astronomers had to wait for something to interact with them so they could make indirect observations of these magnetic walls.
As these interactions are really hard to see, understanding these magnetic fields is not easy.
But now, with the maps provided by the high-energy jets coming out of black holes, the task can be a little easier.
A team of Japanese astronomers working with the MeerKAT radio telescope array in the Karoo desert in South Africa observed a bright galaxy called MRC 0600-399.
This galaxy is inside the galaxy cluster Abell 3376, located more than 600 million light-years away from us in the direction of the southern constellation Columba.
They saw its central black hole eject its jets in a very unusual way: horizontally, as if it were lying down.
These jets hit the magnetic wall around it just like a stream of water coming from a hose hitting a glass window.
There’s a great deal of chaotic activity in the interaction.
So the astronomers performed simulations of the magnetic fields and the jets of particles using one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, ATERUI II.
By assuming an arch-shaped magnetic field and neglecting turbulence & the galactic motion the computer eventually produced a simulation that was a good match to the observations.
This very visible and interesting interaction is giving astrophysicists clues to the behavior of magnetic fields between the galaxies in a cluster.
Hey Here’s A Cool Fact:
The action of plasma as it creates a magnetic wall is a bow shock.
The effect is similar to the bow wave of a boat, or the way a sonic boom propagates from a jet airplane’s nose & wings.
Bow shocks happen everywhere in the Universe, not just close to galaxy clusters.
For example, when the fast-moving solar wind slams into our Earth’s magnetosphere, we create a bow shock.
Jupiter does this too! In a BIG way!
Thank you for listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Planetary Science Institute. Audio post-production by Richard Drumm. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes.
This show is made possible thanks to the generous donations of people like you! Please consider supporting to our show on Patreon.com/365DaysofAstronomy and get access to bonus content.
After 10 years, the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is entering its second decade of sharing important milestone in space exploration and astronomy discoveries. Join us and share your story. Until tomorrow! Goodbye!