China FAST Telescope Discovers Gas-Rich Galaxies :Chinese astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope. Their findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, reveal a wealth of gas-rich galaxies in the far reaches of the cosmos.
These galaxies, shrouded in the faint glow of radio waves that have traveled for nearly the entire age of our solar system, hold a surprising secret: they contain as much or even more atomic hydrogen gas compared to the tens of thousands previously discovered with other telescopes.
Led by Dr. Xi Hongwei from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), the international research team, including collaborators from Australia, the United States, and Russia, identified six new galaxies with exceptionally high redshifts, indicating their vast distance from Earth.
This discovery is significant because it sheds light on the evolution of cool gas within galaxies. Hydrogen gas, the universe’s most abundant element, is the fuel that ignites star formation. By studying these distant galaxies, scientists can gain valuable insights into how galaxies formed and transformed over billions of years.
“The newly discovered high-redshift galaxies offer a unique opportunity to delve deeper into the evolution of cool gas in galaxies,” the research paper highlights. “A larger sample size in the future will allow us to refine our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.”
The sensitivity limitations of previous radio telescopes hindered our understanding of interstellar medium (ISM) evolution in galaxies. However, FAST’s exceptional capabilities have opened a new window into this cosmic mystery.
“Our blind neutral hydrogen search, also known as the FAST Ultra-Deep Survey, has yielded these exciting results,” said Dr. Peng Bo, a scientist at NAOC. “These discoveries demonstrate the immense sensitivity of FAST and are just a glimpse into the ongoing survey’s potential.”
The ongoing FAST Ultra-Deep Survey has already unearthed over 100 new galaxies residing up to 5 billion light-years away. The final tally is expected to surpass 1,000, providing an unprecedented dataset for astronomers.
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The analysis suggests that galaxies existing 4 billion years ago harbored significantly more star-forming gas compared to their present-day counterparts. This implies that distant galaxies possess much larger reservoirs of hydrogen gas than previously believed.
Locating the optical counterparts of these faint and distant galaxies with different wavelengths proved challenging for FAST. However, through collaboration with experts wielding the largest optical telescopes in the United States and Russia, the researchers successfully identified their counterparts.
“These counterparts boast 2-3 times the number of stars compared to our Milky Way, but remarkably, they contain a staggering 10 times more hydrogen gas mass,” explained Dr. Peng.
This international collaboration between Chinese and Australian radio astronomers exemplifies the immense potential of next-generation radio telescopes like FAST to unlock the secrets of the cosmos.
FAST’s impressive size, with a reception area equivalent to 30 football fields, nestled within a deep, natural depression in Guizhou Province, China, positions it at the forefront of groundbreaking astronomical discoveries. Since its official operations began in 2020, FAST has become a pivotal tool for astronomers worldwide, ushering in a new era of unraveling the universe’s grand narrative.