CAPE TOWN, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- South Africa's MeerKAT telescope has discovered a massive new radio galaxy spanning more than 32 times the size of the Milky Way, a researcher revealed Saturday.

"MeerKAT's newest giant radio galaxy find is extraordinary. The plasma jets of this cosmic giant span 3.3 million light-years from end to end -- over 32 times the size of the Milky Way," said Jacinta Delhaize, a lecturer at the University of Cape Town and one of the lead researchers who made the discovery. She shared insights about the finding in an article published Saturday on Independent Online (IOL), a South African news platform.

According to Delhaize, the colossal galaxy, located 1.44 billion light-years from Earth, has been nicknamed "Inkathazo," meaning "trouble" in African Xhosa and Zulu languages. "That's because it's been a bit troublesome to understand the physics behind what's going on with Inkathazo," she explained.

"This discovery has given us a unique opportunity to study giant radio galaxies. The findings challenge existing models and suggest that we don't yet understand much of the complicated plasma physics at play in these extreme galaxies," Delhaize added.

The discovery was published on Jan. 17 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Giant radio galaxies, or GRGs, are rare cosmic behemoths spewing jets of hot plasma millions of light-years across intergalactic space. These plasma jets, which glow at radio frequencies, are powered by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.

The MeerKAT telescope, located in the Karoo region of South Africa, is made up of 64 radio dishes and is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO). It's a precursor to the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), which will be the world's largest telescope when it commences science operations around 2028.

SKA is a network of thousands of radio antennas of varying types and sizes, located at several sites in Western Australia and Southern Africa. With a square kilometer of collecting area, it will feature much higher sensitivity and survey speeds than any other radio instrument developed so far.

The international big science project was jointly funded, built and run by more than 10 countries, with China being one of the seven founding members and a signatory to the SKA Observatory Convention signed in 2019. Enditem

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