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Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe bound together bygravity . They can contain thousands of galaxies , enormous oceans of hot gas , invisible islands ofdark matterand — sometimes — the beam ghost of a jellyfish or two .
In the wandflower clump Abell 2877 , locate in the southerly sky about 300 millionlight - yearsfrom Earth , uranologist have distinguish one such Portuguese man-of-war . seeable only in a narrow-minded dance band of receiving set brightness , the cosmic jelly is more than 1 million light - year wide of the mark and admit a large lobe of supercharged plasma , drop with tentacles of hot natural gas .
The radio jellyfish is more than 1 million light-years wide.
The anatomical structure ’s jelly - like appearance is both " ghostly " and " preternatural , " accord to the authors of a new newspaper published March 17 in theAstrophysical Journal . However , even more astonishing than the blank space jelly ’s shape is how chop-chop the structure vanishes from view , the authors said .
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" This wireless jellyfish holds a world record of sorts , " lead study generator Torrance Hodgson , of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research ( ICRAR ) in Perth , Australia , said in a statement . " Whilst it ’s hopeful at regular FMradiofrequencies , at 200 MHz the expelling all but disappears . No other extragalactic discharge like this has been observe to vanish anywhere near so rapidly . "
The ghost of jellyfish past
The universe is swimming with industrious structure that are only visible in receiving set wavelengths , like the mysteriousX - influence galaxiescartwheeling through blank , or thetwin blobsat the center of theMilky Way . However , no structure this bombastic has ever been observed in such a narrow band of the radio spectrum .
harmonize to the research worker , that likely means this cosmic jellyfish is actually an odd hoot bed as a " radio phoenix . "
Like the mythical razz that died in flame and rose again from the ash tree , a wireless capital of Arizona is a cosmic social system that ’s born from a high - energy explosion ( like ablack holeoutburst ) , pass over millions of years as the complex body part expand and its negatron lose vim , then at last gets reenergized by another cosmic cataclysm ( such as the hit of two galaxies ) .
To create a wireless capital of Arizona , that last cosmic consequence must be powerful enough to institutionalise shockwaves surge through the inactive cloud of electrons , induce the cloud to compress and the electron to spark with energy again . concord to the written report authors , that could stimulate a structure like the jellyfish cluster to glow brilliantly in certain radio wavelength , but dim rapidly in others .
" Our working theory is that around 2 billion years ago , a fistful of supermassive black hole from multiple galaxies spewed out potent jets ofplasma , " Hodgson said .
That blood plasma ’s energy evanesce over millions of yr , until " quite recently , two thing happened — the plasma started mixing at the same clip as very easy shock waves passed through the organisation , " Hodgson said . " This has briefly reignite the plasma , light up the man-of-war and its tentacle for us to see . "
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The researchers used a figurer simulation to show that this explanation is a plausible origin story for that big jellyfish in the sky , though several big question — such as where the " gentle shockwaves " come from — stay on unanswered . The team hopes to take a closer look at the jellyfish in the future tense , take after the completion of the Square Kilometre Array — a internet of 100 of radio receiver scope feeler planned for building in the Australian Outback .
Originally published on Live Science .
