Cape Town - A study led by a University of Pretoria (UP) master’s student using South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope has led to the discovery of a group of 20 galaxies.
This large galaxy group is probably the most neutral hydrogen gas-rich group ever discovered. It is the first time this group has been identified, despite residing in a very well-studied area of the sky.
The research was led by Shilpa Ranchod, an MSc student at UP’s Department of Physics, supervised by Professor Roger Deane, founder of the UP Radio Astronomy Research Group, and now Extraordinary Professor.
“The distribution of neutral hydrogen gas in these galaxies has revealed interesting, disturbed morphologies suggesting that these galaxies are group members and are being influenced by their cosmic neighbours in the group,” Ranchod said.
“For example, we found an interacting pair of galaxies that will potentially merge to form a new galaxy with a completely transformed appearance.”
Ranchod added that the MeerKAT observations show a galaxy group in its early stages of formation, which is extremely rare. “Through this, we are able to understand how galaxy groups are assembled and evolve. This group inhabits an area of sky that has been studied by many other telescopes, but the group structure has been revealed for the first time due to MeerKAT’s excellent sensitivity.”
Most star-forming galaxies are embedded within a cloud of cold neutral hydrogen gas, which acts as the raw fuel from which stars can eventually form. This gas is extremely faint and can only be detected in radio wavelengths. It is diffuse and extends beyond the visible part of the galaxy. By observing this hydrogen gas, astronomers are able to understand the evolutionary processes that take place in galaxies.
The majority of galaxies in the universe reside in groups. However, it is rare to detect a group with such a large number of members with so much neutral hydrogen. This suggests that the group is still in the process of assembly, as it has not undergone evolutionary processes that would remove this gas from the galaxies.
This galaxy group was discovered by the MeerKAT International Gigahertz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration (MIGHTEE) survey. It is one of the large survey projects in progress using South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope and involves a team of South African and international astronomers.
The MeerKAT radio telescope in the Northern Cape, South Africa’s precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), aims to answer fundamental questions about the formation and evolution of galaxies. Its exceptional sensitivity provides astronomers with further insight into the drivers of galaxy evolution.
“MeerKAT continues to impress us with new discoveries, thanks to some brilliant South African engineers who have delivered a world-leading instrument,” said Prof Deane.
“To see our bright young students take hold of the scientific opportunities this presents and carry out internationally acclaimed research is both a rewarding and essential step as we plan ahead towards the Square Kilometre Array era.”
Ranchod’s galaxy group was found in a survey that produces hundreds of terabytes of data, which are processed via the cloud computing facility hosted by the inter-university Institute of Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), a partnership between the universities of Pretoria, Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Professor Chris Theron, Head of UP’s Department of Physics, said: “By equipping smart and inquisitive students with the hardware and software tools required to carry out big data research, we open enormous discovery potential. In the Department of Physics, we endeavour to do exactly that.”
Prof Theron represents UP on the inter-university Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy management team. An article on this discovery will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Publicly available pre-print: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.01237