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The EMU (Evolutionary Map of the Universe) ASKAP Survey Science Project is publishing
a paper describing the results from the EMU Pilot Survey.
In an article for The Conversation, Ray Norris
describes some of the surprises that have emerged from this data set:
"Scanning through data fresh off the telescope, we saw two ghosts
dancing deep in the cosmos. We had never seen anything like it before,
and we had no idea what they were. Several weeks later, we had
figured out we were seeing two radio galaxies, about a billion light
years away. In the centre of each one is a supermassive black hole,
squirting out jets of electrons that are bent into grotesque shapes by
an intergalactic wind. The two galaxies we think are responsible for
the streams of electrons (shown as curved arrows) that form the
Dancing Ghosts. But we don’t understand what is causing the filament
labelled as 3. But where does the intergalactic wind come from? Why
is it so tangled? And what is causing the streams of radio emission?
We still don’t understand the details of what is going on here, and it
will probably take many more observations and modelling before we do."
(Image credit: Jayanne English and Ray Norris using data from EMU and the Dark Energy Survey)
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