Scientists from Clemson University College of Science, in collaboration with foreign colleagues, unexpectedly for everyone, reported the first full-fledged detection of a relativistic jet escaping from two colliding galaxies. This is the first photographic evidence that galaxies merge can create jets of charged particles that travel at nearly the speed of light.
Previously, researchers found that such jets can be detected in elliptical galaxies that can form as a result of the merger of two spiral galaxies. Now the first image has been obtained showing the formation of a jet from two young spiral galaxies.
The study was published in the article 'TXS 2116-077: Relativistic jet emitting gamma rays from galaxy mergers'.
It is believed that jets are the most powerful astrophysical phenomena in the universe. They can emit as much energy into space in one second as the Sun needs to produce during the entire life of our star. This energy is in the form of radiation such as intense radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays.
Previously, the jets were thought to form from older elliptical galaxies with an active galaxy nucleus (AGN), a supermassive black hole at its center. Scientists believe all galaxies have centrally located supermassive black holes, but not all are AGNs. For example, the massive black hole in our Milky Way is dormant.
AGN is believed to increase by the gravitational pull of gas and dust in a process called accretion. But not all of this matter ends up in the black hole. Some particles become accelerated and are thrown out in the form of narrow beams in the form of jets, which scientists have captured.
Thus, the team of astronomers confirmed that they captured two galaxies: the Seyfert-1 galaxy, known as TXS 2116-077, and another galaxy of similar mass. This is already a secondary collision and it happened due to the huge amount of gas visible in the image.
The image was taken with one of the largest ground-based telescopes in the world: Subaru's 8.2-meter optical infrared telescope, located atop a mountain in Hawaii.
