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In yesterday's colloquium, Marcin Glowacki described
the LADUMA (Looking At the Distant
Universe with the MeerKAT Array) survey and highlighted the
detection of ‘Nkalakatha’, the first high-redshift OH (hydroxyl)
megamaser found through the main emission lines, and the first
scientific result of LADUMA.
Yesterday's ADAP showed the "channel maps" of the source detection:
today's gif animation steps through the velocity ranges in turn
with the detection showing up clearly.
During the
first night of observation for LADUMA survey, the above emission was seen.
The emission is from a megamaser,
the result of a recent galaxy merger event.
This is the most distant megamaser of its
kind ever detected, at about five billion light years from Earth, and
was named ‘Nkalakatha’ [pronounced ng-kuh-la-kuh-tah]—an isiZulu word
meaning “big boss”. LADUMA
will amass over 3000 hours of observation to study the hydrogen
content of distant galaxies. (Image credit: Marcin
Glowacki/LADUMA/CARTA.)
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