[TAG0]
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. However, the way it behaves and where it's found can reveal a lot more about the universe. The discovery of atomic hydrogen in the farthest galaxy has made history for scientists from McGill University, Canada and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. This is thanks to the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope array (GMRT), with a little help of gravity.
Radio waves of atomic hydrogen have a wavelength 21 cm. This signal can be detected in all parts of the universe, even distant ones. The record for atomic hydrogen detection had been 4.1 billion light years (redshift =0.376). This record has been more than doubled by the Indian-Canadian team to 8.8 billion lightyears. This means that signals detected by GMRT array were emitted at a time when the universe was only 4.9 billion years old.
Hydrogen is the star-formation fuel, and you can eventually get all elements from the periodic table from it. According to the IISc statement, it is crucial to trace the evolution and evolution of neutral gas in different cosmological times to understand the evolution of galaxies. Hot ionized gas is formed around a young galaxie. These clouds of gas are cooled and then become atomic hydrogen (or neutral hydrogen) as they fall into a galaxy. It then forms molecular hydrogen. This is composed of two hydrogen atoms that are bonded together. This material is what creates new stars.
A 21 cm signal would normally be too faint to detect 8 billion light-years away. However, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope team was able use gravitational lensing to increase its reach. Gravitation around an object as large as a galaxy can magnify light in the same way a telescope lens does. The researchers were able detect the 21 cm signal. It was 48 cm in length by the time it reached Earth due to the redshift z=1.29. The signal was amplified by the gravitational lens by 30 times, according to the researchers. Data also show that the atomic hydrogen mass in this distant galaxy is twice as large as its stellar mass.
This is only the beginning of distant hydrogen detections, according to the team. Future low-frequency telescopes will be able to make similar detections, without the need for gravitational lensing. This could improve and confirm the data from GMRT and help us learn more about the early universe.
Read
- Researchers may have created metallic hydrogen.
- Astronomers shocked by powerful Gamma Ray Burst from Colliding Neutron Stars
- Scientists Find Earth's Closest Black Hole
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
By: Ryan Whitwam
Title: Scientists Detect Atomic Hydrogen In Most Distant Galaxy Ever
Sourced From: www.extremetech.com/extreme/342472-scientists-detect-atomic-hydrogen-in-most-distant-galaxy-ever
Published Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2023 11:54:55 +0000
Leave a Reply