Your cart is currently empty!
Discovery of Rare Double Ringed Radio Circle Marks Milestone in Citizen Science
Contents
show
The Mystery of the Odd Radio Circle
Odd radio circles, or ORCs, were first noticed roughly six years ago, baffling scientists with their immense size and ghostly glow. These structures consist of magnetized plasma, charged particles shaped and moved by powerful magnetic fields, and often dwarf entire galaxies. Some span 10 to 20 times the size of the Milky Way, stretching hundreds of thousands of light years across.
Despite their vastness, ORCs are faint and invisible to optical telescopes, detectable only in radio wavelengths. Their origins have long puzzled astronomers: were they remnants of black hole explosions, echoes of galactic collisions, or even theoretical wormholes?
The latest find, officially named RAD J131346.9+500320, adds a new layer to the mystery. It is the first double ringed ORC ever discovered by citizen scientists and the most distant one detected so far, located 7.5 billion light years from Earth.
“ORCs are among the most bizarre and beautiful cosmic structures we’ve ever seen — and they may hold vital clues about how galaxies and black holes co-evolve, hand-in-hand,” said Dr. Ananda Hota, lead author of the study and assistant professor at the University of Mumbai’s Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences
A Leap for Citizen Science
While large telescopes and advanced computing power often dominate modern astronomy, this particular breakthrough was driven by human curiosity and collaboration. Dr. Hota directs RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory, an open online community where scientifically trained volunteers help analyze astronomical data.
Participants study faint, complex images from radio telescopes, identifying unusual structures that might otherwise go unnoticed. The double ring ORC was first spotted in data from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope, a massive network of thousands of antennas spread across the Netherlands and Europe, designed to observe the universe at extremely low radio frequencies.
“This work shows how professional astronomers and citizen scientists together can push the boundaries of scientific discovery,” Hota said.
Even though the volunteers weren’t specifically trained to detect ORCs, the unusual shape immediately stood out. The two rings, each hundreds of thousands of light years wide, appear to intersect from Earth’s perspective but are likely separated in space, forming a breathtaking double structure nearly a million light years across.
The Science Behind the Rings
Researchers believe the ORC’s double rings may be remnants of ancient, energetic events linked to supermassive black holes. According to Dr. Hota, “We suggest that a major explosive event took place in the central galaxy. The resulting shock or blast wave could have re-energised ancient clouds of magnetised plasma, making them glow again as radio rings.”
This means that what astronomers are seeing today could be a cosmic afterglow, the illuminated remains of powerful jets once fired from a galaxy’s central black hole. These jets, composed of near light speed particles, carve through intergalactic space, creating rippling shockwaves that can expand for billions of years.
“Black holes don’t directly gobble up stars, gas and dust,” Hota explained. “Instead, that material falls into a rotating disk around the black hole. The powerful magnetic fields around black holes help channel these energetic, superheated particles away from black holes in jets that nearly reach the speed of light.”
The research team also identified two additional odd radio circles in separate galaxies, one located at the end of a sharply curved jet, forming a smaller radio ring about 100,000 light years wide. These discoveries hint that ORCs may not be isolated phenomena but part of a broader, complex web of galactic activity.
“These discoveries show that ORCs and radio rings are not isolated curiosities, they are part of a broader family of exotic plasma structures shaped by black hole jets, winds, and their environments,” noted study coauthor Dr. Pratik Dabhade, assistant professor at Poland’s National Centre for Nuclear Research.
Human Curiosity Meets Cosmic Scale
Beyond the data and radio maps lies a deeper narrative of how science evolves when more minds join the search for truth. The inclusion of citizen scientists in projects like this one reflects a modern democratization of astronomy, where knowledge is shared and participation is open to anyone with curiosity and discipline. Unlike the technical breakthroughs discussed elsewhere, this section speaks to the human process of discovery itself: perseverance, pattern recognition, and the willingness to look again where machines might not. Dr. Ray Norris, the astrophysicist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) who first identified ORCs, praised the achievement. “ORCs are really hard to find, but we know there must be hundreds in the data,” Norris said. “At the moment, citizen science looks like the best approach, and these guys seem to be making a great job of it.”
The success of RAD@home and its volunteers underscores a growing partnership between professionals and non-professionals. While artificial intelligence accelerates data processing, it cannot yet replicate human intuition. Recognizing subtle irregularities, connecting visual clues, and drawing meaning from faint radio patterns require cognitive flexibility that algorithms still lack. In this discovery, it was the human eye—trained, patient, and imaginative—that noticed something extraordinary hidden among billions of signals. This collaboration also represents a cultural shift toward inclusivity in scientific exploration, where discovery is not confined to observatories or universities but open to a global community. The result is a richer, more creative approach to research, proving that the pursuit of cosmic understanding thrives when people of all backgrounds contribute their insight and dedication.
Looking Back in Time
The discovery of the most distant ORC allows astronomers to effectively peer billions of years into the past. The light from this structure has traveled across space for 7.5 billion years, meaning the event that created it occurred when the universe was roughly half its current age.
“By studying them across different cosmic times, we can begin to reveal how such energetic outbursts influence the surrounding gas and trigger or suppress star formation,” Hota said. “Our discovery pushes the known boundary of ORCs to nearly half the age of the Universe, providing vital clues about their origins and link to the broader life cycle of galaxies.”
The faint glow of these colossal rings might therefore be more than just remnants of violent galactic pasts, they could be historical records written in plasma, tracing how galaxies evolve and interact over eons.
The Future of ORC Research
The discovery opens the door to deeper investigations using next generation telescopes like the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), now under construction in South Africa and Australia. Expected to be completed by 2028, SKA will be the world’s largest radio telescope, with thousands of dishes and up to a million antennas forming a single, coordinated observatory.
This unprecedented sensitivity will allow scientists to explore the fine details of ORCs and other faint radio structures, potentially revealing the physics behind their creation. “With the SKA, we’ll be able to see the life cycles of galaxies and black holes unfold in greater detail than ever before,” said Hota.
For now, the discovery of RAD J131346.9+500320 marks a remarkable convergence of human curiosity, technological innovation, and cosmic grandeur. It is a story that reminds us that even in an era dominated by machines and algorithms, the human capacity for wonder, to notice the faint, the unusual, and the beautiful, remains irreplaceable.
A Window Into the Unknown
At its heart, this discovery is about more than astronomy. It’s about perspective. The double ringed odd radio circle, with its sheer scale and mystery, challenges us to consider our place in a vast and evolving universe.
Through the combined efforts of professional scientists and everyday people, we continue to uncover patterns that speak to something timeless, the shared human drive to understand what lies beyond. Every signal captured, every ring traced, and every theory tested brings us closer to grasping the grand design of the cosmos.
In the words of Dr. Hota, “Our discovery pushes the known boundary of ORCs to nearly half the age of the Universe.” And in doing so, it also pushes the boundary of what humanity can achieve when science becomes a truly collective pursuit.