The James Webb telescope, which required three decades of planning, designing, and building,
is expected to unveil the vast expanse of the universe.
We are talking about a telescope that recently discovered a mysterious and gigantic object
hidden in the depths of the universe.
But just how gigantic is this object, and what are the consequences of its enormous
size?
Stick around to find out.
The study of galaxy astronomy is a beautiful area within astrophysics that aims to understand
the characteristics of galaxies', it's actions, and development.
These colossal systems comprise stars, gas, dust, and dark matter, constituting the universe's
building blocks.
The remarkable findings in deep Space have left humans in awe.
However, introducing advanced instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope gives
us hope that the world will witness even more extraordinary and monumental space discoveries.
This implies that the staggering ten billion dollars invested in developing this powerful
telescope and the complexities of the design are fully justified.
Equipped with cutting-edge, high-resolution, and high-sensitivity instruments, the James
Webb Telescope can capture images of objects that are too remote, aged, or dim for the
Hubble Space Telescope.
As the largest optical telescope presently operational in space, it enables astronomers
to undertake a wide range of exploratory missions spanning various domains of astronomy and
cosmology.
Among its many capabilities, the telescope enables scientists to study the formation
of the first galaxies and stars and conduct detailed atmospheric analyses of habitable
exoplanets.
The JWST has four key goals, which include searching for light originating from the initial
stars and galaxies that emerged in the universe following the Big Bang, studying the formation
and evolution of galaxies, understanding the formation of stars and planets as well as
exploring planetary systems and the origin of life.
These goals can be accomplished more effectively by observing near-infrared rather than light
in the visible part of the spectrum.
Unlike the Hubble Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope will not measure visible or
ultraviolet light.
Instead, it will have a greater capacity to perform infrared astronomy.
It can detect a wide spectrum of wavelengths, ranging from 0.6 to 28 μm.
To put this into perspective, these wavelengths correspond to orange light at one end of the
spectrum and deep infrared radiation at approximately 100 K or −173 °C at the other end.
The JWST has the potential to gather data on the peculiar light-curve properties of
star KIC 8462852, which was detected in 2015 due to its dimming light and abnormal behavior.
Additionally, it can determine if an exoplanet has methane in its atmosphere, allowing astronomers
to identify whether it is a biosignature.
The mid-infrared camera on the Webb telescope is capable of detecting objects in space by
capturing infrared light emitted from dust.
This allows the camera to focus on the object instead of being obscured by it, which sets
it apart from Hubble.
As objects in the universe move further away from us, they tend to travel faster, resulting
in a phenomenon called redshift.
This causes the object to appear redder in color.
As the object moves even further away, it becomes so red that it transitions into the
infrared part of the spectrum.
This is the reason why the JWST can see much further into the universe than any other telescope
before it, reaching almost to the beginning of the universe, 13.7 billion years ago.
Over the years, one of the biggest surprises space travelers and scientists have had is
the large amount of Space in Space.
It is so large that it can contain several gigantic objects and still has room for more,
and just recently, one of the largest objects was discovered, the Alcyoneus Galaxy.
This discovery was more intriguing because it was discovered accidentally, but that has
been true of many life-changing discoveries or inventions.
Martijn Oei and a team of researchers published a paper in February 2022, which reported on
the discovery of Alcyoneus.
This mythological figure's name derives from Greek mythology.
The team identified the object using data from the Low-Frequency Array Two-metre Sky
Survey, which is an interferometric radio survey of the Northern Sky.
The object initially appeared as a bright, three-component radio structure and was visible
on at least four spatial resolutions of the LoTSS, namely the 6, 20, 60, and 90 arcminute
resolutions.
The similarity in the distance between the two outer components of the radio structure
and the smaller, elongated radio structure suggests that they could be radio lobes.
Radio-optical overlays were used to obtain further confirmations, ruling out the possibility
that the two outer components were separate radio lobes originating from different galaxies.
The overlays confirmed that the same source produced the outer components and the smaller,
elongated radio structure.
Alcyoneus is classified as a massive radio galaxy, which belongs to a special category
of entities recognized for having radio lobes produced by relativistic jets propelled by
the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
Radio galaxies are a type of galaxy that emit large amounts of radio waves due to the presence
of active supermassive black holes at their centers.
These black holes are actively accreting matter from their surroundings, which causes intense
radiation and particle jets to be emitted from the galaxy's nucleus.
Radio galaxies are important astronomical objects because they provide information about
the growth and evolution of galaxies, the properties of supermassive black holes, and
the interplay between black holes and their surrounding environments.
By studying the radio emission from these galaxies, astronomers can determine the size
and shape of the jets, the amount of energy being released, and the impact of the jets
on the surrounding intergalactic medium.
These galaxies can also be used to study the universe's large-scale structure, as they
are often found in clusters of galaxies.
By studying the distribution and properties of these clusters, astronomers can learn about
the formation and evolution of structures in the universe.
Compared to regular radio galaxies, giant radio galaxies can stretch across significantly
greater scales, sometimes spanning several megaparsecs in diameter, which far exceeds
the size of their host galaxies.
Alcyoneus is situated in a host galaxy that lacks a quasar and is relatively inactive.
Based on spectral imaging from the 12th data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the
star formation rate in this galaxy is only 0.016 solar masses per year, which classifies
it as a low excitation radio source.
Alcyoneus derives most of its energy from the relativistic process of the central galaxy's
jet instead of radiation from its active galactic nucleus.
The mechanism behind the significant growth of Alcyoneus's radio emissions remains unclear,
and several theories have been proposed.
These include a less dense environment than usual surrounding it, its location inside
a filament of the cosmic web, a supermassive black hole, a vast population of stars, and
powerful jet streams.
Furthermore, scientists have recognized that certain galaxies possess a sphere of influence
that extends well beyond their immediate surroundings.
When measuring objects in Space, such as galaxies, it is important to consider the method's limitations.
Scientists can only obtain astronomical images from one vantage point - that is, from Earth
- and can, therefore, only measure the length of a galaxy.
Due to this restriction, the estimated length of a galaxy is often conservative.
In the case of Alcyoneus, even the low estimate of its length is still incredibly impressive.
The galaxy's length is over 16 million light years, equivalent to lining up 100 Milky Way
galaxies.
Out of the approximately 1,000 radio galaxies discovered, only 10 exceed 10 million light-years
in length.
Scientists also adopt several methods to measure the size of objects in Space.
However, the method used is based on the type of the objects and the distance involved.
Astronomers can use direct imaging for objects that are relatively close and bright or angular
size for objects that are too far away to be directly imaged, like the stars and galaxies.
However, each method has its limitations, but with the JWST, all those limitations are
being bypassed.
Before we keep going, if you made it this far, be sure to like and subscribe for more
content like this.
The discovery of Alcyoneus and other gigantic objects in Space can massively impact our
understanding of Space and the universe in several ways; firstly, it will provide important
clues on the formation and evolution of galaxies and help scientists study more on the distribution
and properties of dark matter.
More so, this discovery can also help us explore the limits of our current understanding, which
can lead us to raise new questions and venture into discoveries.
In addition, these discoveries can impact our understanding of the universe's formation
in different ways.
It can also help scientists study the distribution of gigantic objects, as in the case of Alcyoneus.
By mapping the distribution of these structures, astronomers can learn about the underlying
distribution of matter and how it has evolved.
This can help us better understand the fundamental processes that have shaped the universe from
its earliest moments.
Moving on, another impact of these discoveries is the discovery of gravitational waves, which
are ripples in space-time caused by the collision of massive objects such as black holes or
neutron stars; it has provided new insights into the properties of these objects and the
nature of gravity itself.
Scientists can learn more about the fundamental physics that governs the universe by studying
the properties of gravitational waves and the objects that produce them.
Be sure to check out this video over here!