Researchers have recorded radio alerts originating from atomic hydrogen in distant galaxies utilizing the Big Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT).
The thought of earth being the one planet with life has by no means been a satisfying thought. On this monumental bundle of stars, planets and vitality there is perhaps another type of life. Perhaps extra superior and current on a unique regulation of nature. Our exploration for such information has been in progress for over centuries. We require expertise which may take us far sufficient to fulfill our “distant cousins”.
Astronomers from McGill College in Canada and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru have used information from the Big Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in Pune to detect a radio sign originating from atomic hydrogen in an especially distant galaxy. The astronomical distance over which such a sign has been picked up is the most important up to now by a big margin. That is additionally the primary confirmed detection of robust lensing of 21 cm emission from a galaxy.
Atomic hydrogen is the fundamental gas required for star formation in a galaxy. When sizzling ionised gasoline from the encircling medium of a galaxy falls onto the galaxy, the gasoline cools and varieties atomic hydrogen, which then turns into molecular hydrogen, and ultimately results in the formation of stars. Due to this fact, understanding the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time requires tracing the evolution of impartial gasoline at totally different cosmological epochs.
Utilizing GMRT information researchers have detected a radio sign from atomic hydrogen in a distant galaxy at redshift z=1.29. This detection was made attainable by a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, during which the sunshine emitted by the supply is bent as a result of presence of one other large physique, resembling an early sort elliptical galaxy, between the goal galaxy and the observer, successfully ensuing within the “magnification” of the sign.
One attention-grabbing factor noticed by the researchers is that the atomic hydrogen mass of this specific galaxy is nearly twice as excessive as its stellar mass. These outcomes show the feasibility of observing atomic gasoline from galaxies at cosmological distances in comparable lensed programs with a modest quantity of observing time. It additionally opens up thrilling new prospects for probing the cosmic evolution of impartial gasoline with current and upcoming low-frequency radio telescopes within the close to future.
Reference : Chakraborty A, Roy N, Detection of H I 21 cm emission from a strongly lensed galaxy at z ∼ 1.3, Month-to-month Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2023), Quantity 519, Subject 3. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac3696