European Astronomical Society | 2020 Jun 29
An international team of astrophysicists led by Andrea Botteon from Leiden University, the Netherlands, has shed light on one of the most intricate objects of the radio sky: the galaxy cluster Abell 2255. Thanks to the incredible detailed images obtained with the European radio telescope LOFAR, the scientists have been able to observe details never seen before of the emission from the cluster. The halo in Abell 2255 is not smooth, but contains numerous filaments that have not been seen previously. ...
The observations carried out with the LOFAR radio telescope are changing the picture that astrophysicists had on galaxy clusters. Despite their name, clusters are not only composed by hundreds of galaxies spread over millions of light years that are bound together by gravity, but also contain particles moving at speeds close to the speed of light that are able to emit radiation in the radio band, when they interact with the cluster magnetic field. These radio emissions, that extend from cluster centers for millions of light years and are produced when two clusters of galaxies collide, have been called radio halos due to their generally spherical and smooth appearance. ...
The Beautiful Mess in Abell 2255 ~ A. Botteon et al
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:2006.04808 > 08 Jun 2020