Multi-wavelength Investigation of a Giant Radio Galaxy with a Peculiar Outflow

Project Description:

Giant radio galaxies (GRGs) are some of the most energetic and spectacular phenomena in the universe. They are extreme cases of extended radio emission, with projected linear sizes > 0.7 Mpc. The largest GRG ever discovered has a projected linear size of 7 Mpc, which exceeds the suggested growth limit of about 5 Mpc for GRGs. The reason why these objects can grow to be this large remains a mystery. One of the hypotheses that has been proposed to explain the exceptionally large sizes of GRGs is that these objects could be very old radio galaxies (RGs) which have had sufficient time to expand over large distances (Subrahmanyan et al. 1996). To test this hypothesis, studies to investigate the age of the emitting electrons, which are not numerous for these sources, have to be done. The student who takes up this project will carry out a multi-wavelength investigation to reveal the spectral properties and age of the GRG. They will also investigate the origin of a peculiar outflow that is observed in this source. The student will work with the radio data that were obtained using the Giant Metre Radio Telescope (GMRT) at two radio frequencies. They will also analyse the MeerKAT (and possibly ALMA) and archival data of this source to unveil the mystery around the outflow that is observed in the low resolution GMRT image data.

Research Area:

Astrophysics

Project Level:

Masters

This Project Is Offered At The Following Node(s):

(NWU)