Citizen scientists discover huge galaxy cluster

One of the scientific projects I’m involved actually is a citizen science program: Radio Galaxy Zoo. Using images from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope (WISE) and the NRAO Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, USA, Radio Galaxy Zoo requests participants to associate radio emission (which is related to the relativistic electrons ejected from a massive black hole) with galaxies as seen in infrared light. The aim is to get a better understanding of the super-massive black holes that are located in the center of the galaxies and quantify their importance in galaxy evolution.

My colleagues Julie Banfield (Australian National University) and Ivy Wong (ICRAR and University of Western Australia) lead the Radio Galaxy Zoo (RGZ) team, that was launched on December 2013. Since then, more than 10,000 volunteers have joined in with Radio Galaxy Zoo, classifying over 1.6 million images.

The wide-angle tail galaxy discovered by Terentev and Matorny is one of the largest known, and its host cluster is now known as the Matorny-Terentev cluster. Credit: Radio Galaxy Zoo.

Well, the news is that two RGZ volunteer participants from Russia, Ivan Terentev and Tim Matorny, have discovered a rare galaxy cluster. They found that one particular radio-source had just one of a line of radio blobs that delineate a C-shaped “wide angle tail galaxy” (WAT). The C-shaped was formed because the massive galaxy hosting the super-massive black hole and its associated jets are moving through intergalactic gas, indicating the existence of a cluster of galaxies. The new wide-angle tail galaxy is one of the largest known, and its host cluster is now known as the Matorny-Terentev cluster.

The details of this discovery has been published this week in the prestigious scientific journal MNRAS, the paper “Radio Galaxy Zoo: discovery of a poor cluster through a giant wide-angle tail radio galaxy” was lead by Julie Banfield (ANU).

There is plenty of information in the Radio Galaxy Zoo webpage, the CAASTRO Press Release and in this nice Article in “The Conversation” by Ray Norris (CSIRO/Western Sydney University and PI of the EMU project to be conducted in the ASKAP), so I’ll just add here the nice interview to Ivy Wong (ICRAR and University of Western Australia) in Ten News Australia yesterday.