Indian astronomers discover most distant radio galaxy

A team of Indian astronomers has located a radio galaxy which is the most distant radio galaxy ever spotted. It is around 12 billion lightyears away from Earth. The team used the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT) which is located near Pune, Maharashtra. It comprises of thirty parabolic radio telescopes that are of 45-meter in diameter.

The Gemini North telescope (Hawaii) and the Large Binocular Telescope (Arizona) also helped to determine the distance between our planet and the radio galaxy. What's more interesting is that the galaxy has managed to attain a huge mass in a short period since its inception, which is pretty unusual.

"Bright radio galaxies harbor supermassive black holes. It is amazing to find such objects as early in the history of the universe; the time for these supermassive black holes to form and grow must have been very short," said Huub Rottgering, Leiden Observatory.
Radio galaxies are known for spitting high-frequency radio waves, thanks to their highly active nucleus. They are also called quasars and carry huge black holes at the center with matter getting sucked into them.

The observations were recorded back in 214, but the team lacked data to make a detailed analysis. Thanks to the imaging upgrades on the GMRT, the team managed to gather substantial data and discover a whole new type of radio galaxies.