New rare 'green bean' galaxy discovered

 Astronomers from New Mexico State University (NMSU) and elsewhere report the discovery of a new galaxy of a rare class, dubbed "green bean." The finding, made with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), was presented in a research paper published May 29 on the preprint server arXiv.

The so-called "green beans" are very rare active galaxies glowing green under the intense radiation from the region around a central black hole. To date, only 17 such galaxies have been identified by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Astronomers suppose that their rare occurrence is due to the fact that these sources may be experiencing a short-lived phase in their evolution.

Now a team of astronomers, led by NMSU's Kelly N. Sanderson, has detected another galaxy of this rare type. Using VLA, they have observed a source in the sky with extended radio emission, designated RGZ J123300.2+060325. Previous studies of this source, which is at a redshift of approximately 0.3, suggested that it may be a...Read more...

Back to Astronomy