AI Generated Image
giant unexplained space rings
Boing Boing • • science
Key Points:
- Astronomers have discovered enormous rings of radio light in deep space, each over 50 times the width of the Milky Way and only visible at radio wavelengths, with no counterpart in optical, infrared, or X-ray observations.
- These rings were first detected in 2019 during an Australian radio survey and exhibit brightness concentrated around their edges.
- Researchers have ruled out known explanations such as shock waves from fast radio bursts, gamma-ray bursts, neutron-star mergers, supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, and imaging artifacts.
- Currently, eight such rings are confirmed, with six more candidates, and three have a galaxy at their center, suggesting the galaxies may have generated these mysterious structures.
- The rings likely represent a new class of astronomical object not accounted for in existing astrophysical models.
