The three-hour observations were made using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. According to scientists, they did not expect to find so many galaxies with a high content of atomic hydrogen in such a short time. Three groups of galaxies rich in atomic hydrogen might potentially be part of a supergroup. In addition, some of the galaxies show clear interactions with each other.
The astronomers also compared the measurements with data from instruments such as the Pan-STARRS telescopes, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer space telescopes. They were able to obtain the stellar masses of galaxies and star formation rates.
It has been established that one of the galaxies is a potential megamaser – a source of stimulated coherent microwave emission with high luminosity, corresponding to interstellar hydroxyl (OH). Rotation curves were constructed for six atomic hydrogen radio sources with sufficient spatial resolution, which made it possible to obtain dark matter halo masses for them.
The discovery highlights MeerKAT’s ability to detect large numbers of galaxies with high atomic hydrogen content randomly even over short observation periods, the scientists said. It is expected that more such galaxies will be discovered in the future.
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2024-03-30 04:55:13
