Jacinta Delhaize (SARAO/University of Cape Town)

Jacinta Delhaize Colloquium: Galaxy evolution surveys with MeerKAT: Selected updates from LADUMA and MIGHTEE

Kensington Auditorium/Online

Abstract

LADUMA and MIGHTEE are two galaxy evolution surveys well underway with the SKA precursor telescope MeerKAT. LADUMA (HI only) and MIGHTEE (HI and continuum) are both starting to produce exciting new papers, thanks to MeerKAT's excellent sensitivity. I will give a brief overview of these surveys and present selected updates. In particular, I will discuss source finding attempts using SoFiA on early LADUMA data.

I will also summarise the results of our recent paper (Delhaize et al., 2021) on the discovery of two giant radio galaxies (GRGs) in MIGHTEE. GRGs are the largest single objects in the Universe and are relatively rare, with fewer than 850 currently known. Only around 7% of these have sizes greater than 2Mpc, yet we have detected two such objects within a 1 square degree field in MIGHTEE-COSMOS Early Science observations. These may be the first of a new population to be revealed through surveys like MIGHTEE, which provide exquisite sensitivity to diffuse, extended emission.