The "China Sky Eye" (FAST) has made another new discovery. The reporter learned from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that based on the observation data of the "China Sky Eye", an international research team led by mainland researchers has discovered a batch of the most distant samples of neutral hydrogen galaxies. The findings were published online in the journal Astrophysical Letters. Hydrogen is the earliest element formed in the universe and usually exists in the form of neutral hydrogen. Neutral hydrogen is also an important component of the gas cycle in galaxies, providing fuel for star-forming regions and an important probe for studying the dynamics of galaxies. The neutral hydrogen rotation curve provides observational evidence for the existence of dark matter, which provides a solid foundation for the establishment of a standard cosmic model. This time, Peng Bo, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presided over the "China Sky Eye" ultra-deep field survey project team, carried out a deep "blind search" for long-range and faintly neutral hydrogen galaxies. "We discovered six neutral hydrogen galaxies about 5 billion light-years from Earth during the Sky Survey. This is the farthest sample of a neutral hydrogen galaxy that has been directly detected with a 21-centimeter emission line to date. One of these galaxies has the largest neutral hydrogen mass to date. Peng Bo said.
The project team estimated the density of massive neutral hydrogen galaxies in the sample and found that there were more massive neutral hydrogen galaxies in the universe 4.2 billion years ago. Through further observation with large optical telescopes from the United States and Russia, researchers have successfully found the optical counterparts of these six long-range neutral hydrogen galaxies. This means that the "China Sky Eye" provides a new way to detect distant neutral hydrogen galaxies.
Article source: Reprinted by People's Daily Online, Science and Technology Daily
Editor: Wang Haoyi
Review: Hao Zili
Producer: Zhao Min, Zhong Xiao
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