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An article in The Conversation by Michael Brown (Monash Uni)
describes the use of the
Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey
(RACS) to detect radio waves from some very massive nearby
galaxies that have previously gone undetected in the radio spectrum.
It is believed that there are supermassive black holes in all the
biggest galaxies, but are they always being "fed" by infalling matter
to produce radio waves? That question motivated the team's study. To
listen for radio waves from these enormous objects, the team used the
ASKAP. Although the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey is just a
preliminary radio survey of 83% of the entire sky, it is already three
times more sensitive than comparable surveys with the previous
generation of radio telescopes. RACS revealed radio waves from all 40
of the most massive galaxies in the survey area. So, it appears all
very massive galaxies emit radio waves, but their power
varies. Determining how all this works will be a challenge, but there
are now clues for astronomers to follow. These results were
published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
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