Radio Galaxy Zoo Talk

Large IR Source

  • rmounce by rmounce

    Such a large IR source. What type of object is this? Galaxy?

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to rmounce's comment.

    Yes, it's an elliptical galaxy; here's an SDSS image of it (SDSS J160217.02+155828.6), at approx the same image size, scale, and orientation:

    enter image description here

    Its name is UGC 10143. The #bent #doublelobe in the center is surely associated with the AGN in the nucleus of the galaxy, but the #compact to the N (and slightly E) is likely a very distant AGN, a chance overlap.

    Cool, eh? 😃

    Posted

  • WizardHowl by WizardHowl in response to JeanTate's comment.

    The small size of the lobes here also suggests this is a very young source, meaning that the supermassive black hole at the centre of this galaxy has not been active for very long. Periods of activity typically last no more than 100 million years or so - not long in terms of the lifetime of the galaxy - so small, young sources will still be interesting to the scientists.

    Posted