Astronomers have detected the most distant megamaser ever observed, born from colliding galaxies.
This powerful cosmic signal acts like a natural laser, revealing how galaxies formed in the early Universe.
https://jornalciencia.pt/um-laser-cosmico-atravessa-8-mil-milhoes-de-anos-de-universo/?lang=en
A natural “space laser” traveled 8 billion years to reach us
byu/JornalcienciaPT inspace
4 Comments
[Here’s the paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.13396)
Wild to think this signal started traveling when universe was basically a toddler compared to now. Makes me wonder what other cosmic messages are still on their way to us that we won’t detect for another few billion years. The timing is just mind-bending – like getting mail from ancient civilizations except it’s galaxies crashing into each other.
Aimed at the giant cat at the center of the universe.
That’s pretty awesome, an OH maser detection from Z > 1, which means that its redshift is such that the observing frequency has been more than halved. This needs not only a very sensitive radio telescope, but also a good radio quiet zone, because otherwise the signal would be drowned out by GSM base stations which happen to be on that frequency.