The known Universe just got a lot bigger as a new map of the night sky published Tuesday charts hundreds of thousands of previously unknown galaxies.
\nAccording to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.
\nThe new galaxies were discovered using a telescope that can detect light sources optical instruments cannot see.
\nThe international team behind the unprecedented space survey said their discovery literally shed new light on some of the Universe\u2019s deepest secrets, including the physics of black holes and how clusters of galaxies evolve.
\n\u201cThis is a new window on the universe,\u201d Cyril Tasse, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory who was involved in the project, told AFP.
\n\u201cWhen we saw the first images we were like: \u2018What is this?!\u2019 It didn\u2019t look anything at all like what we are used to seeing.\u201d
\nMore than 200 astronomers from 18 countries were involved in the study, which used radio astronomy to look at a segment of sky over the northern hemisphere, and found 300,000 previously unseen light sources thought to be distant galaxies.
\nRadio astronomy allows scientists to detect radiation produced when massive celestial objects interact.
\nThe team used the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope in the Netherlands to pick up traces \u2014 or \u201cjets\u201d \u2014 of ancient radiation produced when galaxies merge. These jets, previously undetected, can extend over millions of light years.
\n\u201cWith radio observations we can detect radiation from the tenuous medium that exists between galaxies,\u201d said Amanda Wilber, of the University of Hamburg.
\n\u201cLOFAR allows us to detect many more of these sources and understand what is powering them.\u201d
\nThe discovery of the new light sources may also help scientists better understand the behaviour of one of space\u2019s most enigmatic phenomena.
\nBlack holes \u2014 which have a gravitational pull so strong that no matter can escape them \u2014 emit radiation when they engulf other high-mass objects such as stars and gas clouds.
\nTasse said the new observation technique would allow astronomers to compare black holes over time to see how they form and develop.
\n\u201cIf you look at an active black hole, the jets (of radiation) disappear after millions of years, and you won\u2019t see them at a higher frequency (of light),\u201d he said.
\n\u201cBut at a lower frequency they continue to emit these jets for hundreds of millions of years, so we can see far older electrons.\u201d
\nThe Hubble telescope has produced images that lead scientists to believe there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the Universe, although many are too old and distant to be observed using traditional detection techniques.
\nThe map created by the LOFAR observations, part of which was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, contains data equivalent to ten million DVDs yet charts just two percent of the sky.
\nThe LOFAR telescope is made up of a Europe-wide network of radio antenna across seven countries, forming the equivalent of a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) diameter satellite dish.
\nThe team plans to create high-resolution images of the entire northern sky, which they say will reveal as many as 15 million as-yet undetected radio sources.
\n\u201cThe oldest objects in the Universe are around 11-12 billion light years old,\u201d said Tasse. \u201cSo we are going to see lots more of these objects.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The known Universe just got a lot bigger as a new map of the night sky published Tuesday charts hundreds of thousands of previously unknown galaxies. According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe. The new galaxies were discovered using a telescope that can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}