A powerful radio telescope exploring the Milky Way's satellite galaxy has discovered thousands of previously unknown sources of radio signals.
Australia's ASKAP telescope is one of the most sensitive radio telescopes to date. He is studying the radio spectrum of the universe for more information on how it has evolved over time.
“The new, crisp image shows thousands of radio sources we've never seen before,” explained astronomer Clara Pennock of Keele University in the UK.
Most of them are actually galaxies millions or even billions of light-years from the Large Magellanic Cloud, an area the ASKAP team is currently exploring, she said. Usually, galaxies become visible due to supermassive black holes at their centers, which can be found at all wavelengths, especially in the radio spectrum. But now we are also starting to find many galaxies in which stars are still forming, and at a tremendous rate.
"Combining this data with previous observations using X-ray, optical and infrared telescopes will allow us to explore these galaxies in great detail," the scientists say.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a dwarf spiral galaxy that orbits the Milky Way about 160,000 light years away. Eventually, in about 2.4 billion years, it will be absorbed by the Milky Way, but at the moment, this proximity makes it an excellent object for studying the structure of galaxies and the life cycle of stars.