What is megamaser found in space by astronomers?

In space, a powerful radiowave laser has been found by astronomers. This one-of-a-kind laser is known as megamaser.

It has been observed at around 5 billion light-years away from Earth, which is the most distant ever.

To reach Earth, the light from this laser has travelled 36 thousand billion billion miles (58 thousand billion billion kilometers).

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The megamaser was observed by a team of international astronomers with the help of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory's MeerKAT or Karoo Array telescope.

What is a megamaser?

Marcin Glowacki, who was the leader of the team and research associate at Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia, said, megamasers get created when two galaxies collide with each other.

In a statement, Glowacki said, "When galaxies collide, the gas they contain becomes extremely dense and can trigger concentrated beams of light to shoot out."

In a nutshell, a megamaser is actually a super-powerful laser, which ismade of microwave light, said media reports.

Named Nkalakatha

MeerKAT observed this light or hydroxyl megamaser, for the first time, Glowacki added.

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Hydroxl, which is a chemical group, contains one hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom. It can be found when galaxies merge.

The laser has also been named Nkalakatha by the research team. It means "big boss" in isiZulu, a language of the Zulus in South Africa.

"It's impressive that, with just a single night of observations, we've already found a record-breaking megamaser. It shows just how good the telescope is," Glowacki added.

(With inputs from agencies)