Blog

Apr 11, 2022

Astronomers detect a powerful space laser that is 5 billion light-years away

Posted by in category: space

An international team of astronomers led by Dr. Marcin Glowacki, who previously worked at the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, has made an impressive discovery from 5 billion light-years away, according to a statement released by the institution on Thursday.

Using the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, the researchers discovered a powerful radio-wave laser, called a ‘megamaser’, that is the most distant megamaser of its kind ever detected. Its light has traveled 58 thousand billion billion (58 followed by 21 zeros) kilometers to Earth.

When galaxies collide…

How did it come to be? Megamasers occur when two galaxies violently collide in the Universe.

Comments are closed.