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Giant Radio Sources
Context:
- A team of Indian radio astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery, identifying 34 new giant radio sources (GRSs) using data from the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey Alternative Data Release 1 at 150 MHz.
- These colossal structures are powered by supermassive black holes at their centres and extend millions of light-years across the universe.
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Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT)
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About Giant Radio Sources (GRGs):
- GRGs are likely to be the largest single structures in the universe, with end-to-end extents of millions of light years.
- They are driven by supermassive black holes with masses ten million to a billion times that of the Sun, residing at the centre of the host galaxy.
- These black holes ionise surrounding matter, creating strong electromagnetic forces that push material outward, forming jets of hot plasma and large lobes of radio emission.
- They are considered the final stage of radio galaxy evolution. Detecting them is difficult due to often invisible bridge emissions connecting lobes.
- Notable Cases: GRSs J0843+0513 and J1138+4540 defy previous notions about GRS growth in low-density environments.
- Low-frequency radio surveys (GMRT and LOw-Frequency ARray(LOFAR)) are more effective at detecting GRSs from about 100 known GRSs 20 years ago to a few thousand.
- Thought to grow primarily in low-density environments, but recent findings suggest that environmental factors alone do not fully explain their large sizes.