POWERFUL radio galaxies in the young Universe may have triggered a baby boom
of galaxies 8 to 10 billion years ago.
Radio galaxies spurt out high-speed particle jets, forming giant
radio-emitting lobes on either side of a central supermassive black hole. The
lobes could have enveloped and compressed intergalactic gas, causing it to
shrink to form galaxies, say Paul Wiita of Georgia State University in Atlanta
and Gopal Krishna of the Indian National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in Pune
(Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol 560, p 115).
Most astronomers believe galaxies formed gradually as star clusters merged.
But if Wiita…
