Science News Desk – Galaxy collisions and mergers are not a new phenomenon. It is a commonly occurring phenomenon in the universe. In such a situation, the phenomenon of swallowing a small galaxy by a large galaxy is not surprising. But can it happen that a galaxy has swallowed all the 100 galaxies around it. Yes, scientists have also worked to find such a galaxy, which is very lonely to see, but its study has shown that it has become a victim of this loneliness only because of eating its fellow galaxy. Researchers got this information from the data of Chandra X-ray Observatory.
how old is the galaxy
Scientists have found this incident with the Galaxy to be 9.2 billion years old. This galaxy, named 3C 297, is from around the time of the early universe, which is mysteriously found alone and there is nothing around it, the atmosphere around this galaxy is indicating that it is one of about a hundred galaxies. is part of the group. it was meant to be.
Milky Way shaped cluster
This galaxy cluster is estimated to have been roughly the size of our Milky Way Galaxy. Given that 3C 297 is alone, it seems likely that something else must have happened to all the other galaxies. Astronomer Valentina Masseglia of Italy’s Tornio University says researchers were expecting to find at least a dozen Milky Way-sized clusters, but found only one.
Chandra X Ray Observatory
The researchers obtained data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory on the atmosphere around the galaxy 3C 297, through which they studied the high-energy radiation coming from the galaxy, which contains a quasar, a supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. Is. expanding at a very rapid pace. Emitting a jet of very bright light.
behavior of the jet in the medium
Quasars often emit beams of plasma from the poles of supermassive black holes, and this is the reason why they are known by this new name. Researchers have found indications that this jet is passing through an intergalactic medium belonging to a galaxy group called the intracluster medium.
indications of the presence of the medium
Interaction with the gas of this medium caused one of these jets to twist, revealing the presence of gas in the intracluster medium. The second jet produced an X-ray source 1.4 million light-years away from the galaxy, which suggested that the jet may have collided with the gas, heating it and emitting X-ray radiation. Apart from this, a large amount of hot gas has also been seen around Galaxy 3C297.
Only merger possible
All three features showed that these galaxies were forming a galaxy cluster by joining one galaxy to another through gravity, and scientists took the help of the Gemini Optical and Infrared Observatory in Hawaii for more information. This showed that there are 19 galaxies in 3C 297 but they are very far away from it, so scientists came to the conclusion that all the galaxies around 3C 297 must have merged into it.
After this merger the galaxy cluster has turned into a fossil cluster in which all the galaxies have been found in one galaxy. It is the most distant fossil group ever observed. And its galaxy would have merged even before that. Scientists say it is very difficult to explain how this galaxy system would have evolved in the universe in only 4.6 billion years and then matter would have merged into it. It only shows how fast galaxies and galaxy clusters formed in the past. This research has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.