Scientists have stumbled upon a truly monstrous galaxy hiding at a distance of about three billion light years. Alcyoneus is a massive radio galaxy measuring 16.3 million light years in length, this makes it the largest structure of galactic origin known to date, and it is so huge that it would fill 100 milky ways if it were laid end to end . A stroke of luck that's what astronomers said when they discovered Alcyoneus, but how did it grow to be such a mind-boggling size!
According to astronomers the massive size of Alcyoneus is caused by two enormous jets that originate at the supermassive black hole at its center. The existence of giant radio galaxies is just one of the many mysteries that permeate the universe. They are orbiting a galactic nucleus that harbors a supermassive black hole not only that but this type of galaxy also has massive jets and lobes that erupt from its very core. It has an active supermassive black hole in the core of its galaxy . A black hole is said to be active when it actively consumes matter from a massive disk that orbits it, however not all of the disk material that falls into an active black hole actually goes beyond the event horizon some of it is redirected releasing energy and generating two jet streams that catapult from opposite sides of the galaxy center during this catastrophic event .The raw materials for star formation move at nearly the speed of light or 186 000 miles per second.
Why Alcyoneus glows in radioactive light
The star dust undergoes such extreme heat that it would eventually turn into plasma and emit radio waves, this is how radio galaxies are formed and is also why Alcyoneus glows in radioactive light which was detected by the lofar or low frequency array a network of radio telescopes across Europe, there is nothing new about galaxies having enormous radio lobes filled with plasma in fact the process is pretty normal even our very own milky way has a pair of small lobes. Why they grow to such enormous sizes in some galaxies is something we still don't fully understand just like how Alcyoneus produced such massive plumes became a mystery to scientists. At first scientists speculated that a particularly massive black hole with an abnormally high concentration of stellar debris or powerful jet streams could be to blame, however, Alceoneus is just a typical elliptical galaxy with a mass of about 240 billion times that of the Sun, and a supermassive black hole of about 40 million times that of the Sun.
Comparison with other Galaxies
When compared to other radio galaxies these characteristics don't seem too out of the ordinary. The astronomers don't know what to make of this yet but they're looking into some possible explanations.One idea is that Alceoneus is located in a less dense region of space than usual making it possible to grow to such size, or it could be that the object's development is influenced by its interactions with the cosmic web which is the network that links all galaxies together whatever the cause is. Scientists think Alcionius is only getting bigger out there in the depths of space, nonetheless more research into this radio galaxy could yield new insights into the nature of the cosmic web even though Alceoneus is the most enormous radio galaxy discovered to date.
Alcyoneus galaxy vs ic 1101
The galaxy which is named Alcyoneus is the largest ever discovered galaxy in terms of size. It is four times bigger than the size of IC1101.
It's not the largest galaxy ever found in the observable universe in terms of the extent of its stars that title belongs to ic1101, just one billion light years away from the earth this supergiant elliptical galaxy has a radius of about 3 million light-years at its greatest extent compared to our own milky way galaxy.
The size of Black hole
Ic 1101 is 30 times larger just like Alcyoneus Ic1101 has a supermassive black hole but its black hole is the largest ever found. It has a mass of about 100 trillion stars but most are quite old giving the galaxy a yellowish hue, still these stars boost the galaxy's luminosity to an astonishing degree. It actually emits about 26 percent of the total light from its home cluster the able 2029 cluster of galaxies at first astronomers mystic ic 1101 for a simple nebula everyone thought that until Edwin Hubble came along in the 1920s and used his new classification of galaxies to show that ic1101 is, in fact, a galaxy and a pretty large one at that when faced with the vastness of the cosmos and enormous galaxies like Alcyoneus and ic1101.
The feelings of astronomers
It's easy to feel small, some psychologists have even found that those with direct experience with the universe (astronomers) tend to suffer the most profound feelings of loneliness and lack of importance, but instead of feeling small lonely or unimportant we should realize that we are part of the human race, call planet Earth our home.
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