Astronomers discover 49 new galaxies in under three hours

An international team of astronomers has discovered 49 new gas-rich galaxies using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

We speak with Dr Marcin Glowacki, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia, who led the research, which aimed to study the star-forming gas in a single radio galaxy.

Although the team didn’t find any star-forming gas in the galaxy they were studying, Dr Glowacki instead discovered other galaxies while inspecting the data.

In total, the gas of 49 galaxies was detected. Dr Glowacki said this was a great example of how fantastic an instrument like MeerKAT is for finding the star-forming gas in galaxies.

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