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6d ago

Citizen Scientists Find Most Distant, Most Powerful Odd Radio Circle With Twin Rings

Authors present evidence for a relic of past black-hole activity reshaped by superwinds in a dense cluster environment.

Citizen scientists discover the farthest and most powerful Odd Radio Circle, composed of two giant intersecting rings of radio light.
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Overview

  • The ORC, designated RAD J131346.9+500320, lies at a photometric redshift of about 0.94 and shows two intersecting radio rings embedded in diffuse emission spanning roughly 800 kiloparsecs.
  • Low-frequency measurements report a steep spectral index (α₅₄–¹⁴⁴ = 1.22 ± 0.15), which the team says is consistent with relic synchrotron emission.
  • Volunteers from the RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory identified the source in LOFAR survey maps, marking the first ORC found through citizen science and the first recognized with LOFAR data.
  • The study, published October 2 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, also describes two very large radio systems with ring features in cluster environments measuring roughly 10¹⁴ solar masses.
  • Researchers propose that ORCs and related radio rings are fossil plasma structures shaped or reaccelerated by black-hole jets, superwinds, and hot intracluster gas, and they call for follow-up spectroscopy and larger samples from SKA, DESI, and Rubin Observatory surveys.