The discovery team says that millions of new objects have been cataloged in a new sky map that will lead to more investigations.
A map of 25% of the northern sky was created using a pan-European set of telescopes. It detected objects that are billions of light-years away and include objects ranging from galaxies to distant stars. LOFAR scientists created an interactive animation of the sky map and a database for the public to search for individual objects.
The survey will lead to many more scientific discoveries in the future, according to the lead author.
Radio images give detailed views of distant stars.
Possible investigations include examining how the largest structures in the universe grow, how black holes form and evolve, the physics governing the formation of stars in distant galaxies, and even detailing the most spectacular phases in the life of stars in our own galaxy.
One million objects were not known to astronomy before, the team said. The entire set was cataloged in radio waves, giving a unique view of many objects that were already known to science.
A good amount of machine learning was required to read the 8 petabytes of data. The team used high- performance computers across Europe to process all the data that was collected.
The study was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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