Discovery of the largest galaxy in the universe

A global team of astronomers has discovered the largest galaxy ever in the universe, which is as big as 16.3 million (16.3 million) light years.

That is, this one galaxy can accommodate 100 galaxies like our Milky Way.

This galaxy, called Alcyoneus, is three billion light years away from us, emitting powerful radio waves. That is why it is counted among the 'radio galaxies'.

It should be noted that these galaxies emit a lot more radio waves than normal galaxies which our eyes cannot see but the antennas which 'catch' the radio signals must feel them.

This is why radio telescopes are made using sensitive radio antennas that can "see" scenes that are beyond the reach of the human eye, with the help of radio waves coming from space.

Although the Elsionius radio galaxy had been discovered long ago, its extraordinary size was revealed during a review of observations made in recent years by the great European telescope radio project LOFAR (Low Frequency Array).

Under Loafer, 20,000 sensitive radio antennas for celestial observation are installed at 52 locations across Europe, which together work like a giant radio telescope.

Some radio galaxies are very large, also called 'giant radio galaxies' or 'GRGs' for short.

A team of experts from Britain, France, Germany and South Africa, led by Martin O'Leary from Leiden University in the Netherlands, began to re-examine the giant radio galaxies seen so far under the Loafer project.

The purpose of this survey was to find the largest galaxy in these 'radio images'. The search was soon successful and they spotted Elsionius, which was clearly larger than all the other radio galaxies.

Radio galaxies contain stars, gas clouds, and a giant 'supermassive black hole' at the center, all of which are found in other galaxies.

However, powerful plasma bursts of charged particles are emanating from the center of the radio galaxy, while giant structures such as ear lobes are visible that can reach millions of light-years away, supported only by radio waves. Can be seen from These features are rare in other galaxies.

Experts found that the earlobe-like structures in Elsionius stretched an incredible distance from its center.

On careful measurement, their distance from the galactic center was found to be at least 5 megaparsic (16.3 million light years), making it the largest radio galaxy ever discovered.

So far we do not know how the ear lobes in radio galaxies get so big and what extraordinary process is behind them.

Note: Details of this discovery have been published on the preprint server archive.org and have been approved for publication in the research journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.