Radio Galaxy Zoo Talk

Discovery: April 27th...

  • leonie_van_vliet by leonie_van_vliet

    http://www.sciencealert.com/scientist-just-discovered-a-monster-black-hole-formed-by-3-colliding-spiral-galaxies!
    Has anyone heard of this yet?

    Leonie_van_Vliet

    Posted

  • DocR by DocR scientist

    Something's wrong with the above link, but here's my try.
    http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-discovered-a-monster-black-hole-formed-by-3-colliding-spiral-galaxies

    Note that Radio Galaxy Zoo is the preliminary project to a much bigger one using the Australian SKA Pathfinder Telescope (ASKAP). The initial ASKAP telescopes, now being commissioned and tested, were the place where this discovery was made.

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate

    The paper the PR is based on is Harvey-Smith+ (2016) (link is to astro-ph abstract), Submitted on 26 Apr 2016, and titled "High-velocity OH megamasers in IRAS 20100-4156: Evidence for a Supermassive Black Hole":

    We report the discovery of new, high-velocity narrow-line components of the OH megamaser in IRAS 20100-4156. Results from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP)'s Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) provide two independent measurements of the OH megamaser spectrum. We found evidence for OH megamaser clumps at −409 and −562 km/s (blue-shifted) from the systemic velocity of the galaxy, in addition to the lines previously known. The presence of such high velocities in the molecular emission from IRAS 20100−4156 could be explained by a ~50 pc molecular ring enclosing an approximately 3.8 billion solar mass black hole. We also discuss two alternatives, i.e. that the narrow-line masers are dynamically coupled to the wind driven by the active galactic nucleus or they are associated with two separate galactic nuclei. The comparison between the BETA and ATCA spectra provides another scientific verification of ASKAP's BETA. Our data, combined with previous measurements of the source enabled us to study the variability of the source over a twenty-six year period. The flux density of the brightest OH maser components has reduced by more than a factor of two between 1988 and 2015, whereas a secondary narrow-line component has more than doubled in the same time. Plans for high-resolution VLBI follow-up of this source are discussed, as are prospects for discovering new OH megamasers during the ASKAP early science program.

    Posted