- RESEARCHERS WORKING on giant radio galaxies (GRG), which are large single structures in the universe, have found its largest sample to date.
- Until 2016, only about 300 GRGs were known since their discovery in 1974 and, from our work, we have found nearly 400 new GRGs; the total is about 820.
- It is not clearly understood how some objects grow to such large scales and what is the fuel of their respective black holes.
- Their properties like total mass of their black holes found to be the same.
- Also, only 10 per cent GRGs are found in dense environments indicating that majority avoid dense surroundings.
- The universe has billions of galaxies and almost all have supermassive black holes at the centre.
- Some of these black holes are active and produce jets travelling almost at the speed of light.
- These jets are visible in radio light or at radio wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Such galaxies, which have active black holes shooting high-speed jets, are called radio galaxies.
- The study of GRGs gives us important clues to unveiling the physics and phenomenology of the black hole accretion process or,
- in other words, how these massive black holes accrete mass and the efficiency with which they produce these magnificent jets.
