Images from ASKAP EMU data of two objects dubbed Stingrays based on their appearance. (From Smeaton et al. 2025)

Smeaton et al. present the discovery of two extended, low surface brightness radio continuum sources, both consisting of a near-circular body and an extended tail of emisson, nicknamed Stingray 1 (ASKAP J0129–5350) and Stingray 2 (ASKAP J0245–5642). Both are found in the direction of the Magellanic Stream and were discovered in the ASKAP EMU survey at 944 MHz. The team combine the ASKAP data with low-frequency radio observations from the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA Survey (GLEAM) to conduct a radio continuum analysis. They explore both Galactic/near Galactic scenarios, including runaway or circumgalactic supernova remnants (SNRs) and parentless pulsar-wind nebulae (PWNe), and extragalactic scenarios including radio active galactic nuclei (AGNs), dying radio galaxies, galaxy clusters, galaxy pairs or groups, head-tail radio galaxies, and Odd Radio Circles (ORCs), as well as the possibility that the morphology is due to a chance alignment. The Stingrays exhibit non-thermal emission with spectral indices of α = –0.89 for Stingray 1 and α = –1.77 for Stingray 2. The team find that none of the proposed scenarios can explain all of the observed properties, however they consider it most likely that their shape is caused by some kind of complex environmental interaction. The most likely scenario from the available data is that of a head-tail radio galaxy, but more data is required for a definitive classification. The image above shows ASKAP EMU 944 MHz radio continuum images of the two peculiar sources, Stingray 1 (left) and Stingray 2 (right). Both images use linear scaling and have a restoring beam of 15 arcseconds which is shown in the bottom left corners. The inset in the Stingray 1 image shows the high-resolution (7×7 arcseconds) ASKAP image of the double-lobed radio galaxy associated with the galaxy WISEA J012939.26–535841.0.