Astronomers have found an unprecedented 20-million-light-year-wide envelope of energized particles surrounding the galaxy cluster PLCK G287.0+32.9, located 5 billion light-years from Earth. This discovery, made using NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope, challenges existing models of how cosmic particles maintain their energy over vast distances.
The research, presented at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting, reveals a cloud of energetic particles far larger than previously observed. The team also discovered an 11.4-million-light-year-wide radio halo at 2.4 GHz within the cluster, indicating the presence of cosmic ray electrons and magnetic fields. This suggests that powerful shockwaves and turbulence within the cluster, rather than energy from nearby galaxies, are responsible for energizing the particles.
This finding offers new insights into cosmic magnetic fields and the large-scale structure of the universe. The discovery provides a new way to study cosmic magnetic fields, a major unanswered question in astrophysics, potentially helping scientists understand how these fields shape the universe on the largest scales. The results challenge existing theories about how particles stay energized over time, opening up new avenues for research into the dynamics of galaxy clusters.