Data collected by the Arecibo Radio Telescope before it collapsed late last year will help astronomers better understand how our local neighbourhood of galaxies formed. Arecibo was the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope until it was surpassed in 2016 by China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). At the end of 2020, Arecibo’s 900-ton receiver platform suddenly and spectacularly fell onto the dish below, destroying the telescope.

Arecibo was the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope until it was surpassed in 2016 by China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). At the end of 2020, Arecibo’s 900-ton receiver platform suddenly and spectacularly fell onto the dish below, destroying the telescope.

A team of astronomers from the University of Western Australia and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth have used Arecibo’s observations of nearby galaxies to test the ‘Fall relation’.

First presented by S. Michael Fall in 1983, the Fall relation suggests the mass of stars belonging to a galaxy and its rotation directly correlate to each other and dictate how a galaxy will grow and evolve.

Funded by the Australian Research Council and published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), the new study tests this relationship using data collected from 564 galaxies of varying shapes and ages, making it the largest representative sample of its kind.

Lead author and PhD candidate Jennifer Hardwick said the study would help researchers better understand how a wide range of galaxies evolved and formed, including our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Story Source: Materials provided by International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.