Indian team discovers rare ‘bow and arrow’ radio galaxy two billion light years from Earth

An Indian-led team of researchers has discovered a rare, bow-and-arrow shaped radio galaxy, named RAD-BAARG, approximately two billion light-years from Earth. This unique structure, 1.8 million light-years wide, was identified using the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey. The discovery, published in the 'Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society', was made by the RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory, India's first citizen science platform in astronomy. The unusual morphology is attributed to the interaction of the galaxy's radio plasma with a large bow-shock structure formed as the host galaxy falls through hot gas towards a cluster of galaxies. The structure was named after Manipur's Loktak Lake.