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Accepted manuscript

Stingrays in the radio sky: Two unusual diffuse radio relic sources in the direction of the Magellanic Stream

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2025

Z. J. Smeaton Open the ORCID record for Z. J. Smeaton [Opens in a new window] ,
M. D. Filipović Open the ORCID record for M. D. Filipović [Opens in a new window] ,
B. S. Koribalski Open the ORCID record for B. S. Koribalski [Opens in a new window] ,
M. Sasaki ,
R. Z. E. Alsaberi Open the ORCID record for R. Z. E. Alsaberi [Opens in a new window] ,
A. C. Bradley Open the ORCID record for A. C. Bradley [Opens in a new window] ,
E. J. Crawford Open the ORCID record for E. J. Crawford [Opens in a new window] ,
S. Dai ,
N. Gupta Open the ORCID record for N. Gupta [Opens in a new window]  and
F. Haberl
...Show all authors
Z. J. Smeaton*
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia
M. D. Filipović
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia
B. S. Koribalski
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Space and Astronomy, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
M. Sasaki
Affiliation:
Dr Karl Remeis Observatory, Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Sternwartstraße 7, 96049 Bamberg, Germany
R. Z. E. Alsaberi
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia Faculty of Engineering, Gifu University, 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu 501-1193, Japan
A. C. Bradley
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia
E. J. Crawford
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia
S. Dai
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Space and Astronomy, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
N. Gupta
Affiliation:
Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Space and Astronomy, PO Box 1130, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia
F. Haberl
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Gießenbachstraße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
A. M. Hopkins
Affiliation:
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 12 Wally’s Walk, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
T. H. Jarrett
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
S. Lazarević
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Space and Astronomy, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia Astronomical Observatory, Volgina 7, 11060 Belgrade, Serbia
D. Leahy
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N IN4, Canada
P. Macgregor
Affiliation:
Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC, NSW 2751, Australia Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Space and Astronomy, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
G. Rowell
Affiliation:
School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
S. S. Shabala
Affiliation:
School of Natural Sciences, Private Bag 37, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia
D. Urošević
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
J. Th. van Loon
Affiliation:
Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, ST5 5BG, UK
T. Vernstrom
Affiliation:
Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Space and Astronomy, PO Box 1130, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway
*
Author for correspondence: Z. J. Smeaton, Email: 19594271@student.westernsydney.edu.au
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Abstract

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We present the discovery of two extended, low surface brightness radio continuum sources, each consisting of a near-circular body and an extended tail of emission, nicknamed Stingray 1 (ASKAP J0129–5350) and Stingray 2 (ASKAP J0245–5642). Both are found in the direction of the Magellanic Stream (MS) and were discovered in the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) survey at 944 MHz. We combine the ASKAP data with low-frequency radio observations from the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA Survey (GLEAM) to conduct a radio continuum analysis. We explore both Galactic/near Galactic scenarios, including runaway or circumgalactic supernova remnants (SNRs) and parentless pulsar-wind nebulae (PWNe), and extragalactic scenarios including radio active galactic nuclei (AGNs), dying radio galaxies, galaxy clusters, galaxy pairs or groups, head-tail radio galaxies, and Odd Radio Circles (ORCs), as well as the possibility that the morphology is due to a chance alignment. The Stingrays exhibit non-thermal emission with spectral indices of α = –0.89 ± 0.09 for Stingray 1 and α = –1.77 ± 0.06 for Stingray 2. We find that none of the proposed scenarios can explain all of the observed properties, however we determine it most likely that their shape is caused by some kind of complex environmental interaction. The most likely scenario from the available data is that of a head-tail radio galaxy, but more data is required for a definitive classification.

Keywords

galaxies: Magellanic Cloudsradio continuum: generalISM: supernova remnantsgalaxies: activegalaxies: clusters: general

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Accepted manuscript , pp. 1 - 21
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Astronomical Society of Australia

Footnotes

†

Deceased on 3rd July 2024.