Decoding the giant extragalactic radio sources

TL;DR

Giant radio sources are the largest known cosmic objects, crucial for understanding galaxy evolution and environment interactions, with recent survey data significantly expanding their known population and future prospects with SKA.

Contribution

This review consolidates five decades of research on GRSs and highlights the potential of upcoming SKA observations to address unresolved questions.

Findings

GRSs are key probes of galaxy and quasar evolution.

Recent surveys have greatly increased the known GRS population.

SKA will enable detailed studies of GRS environments and evolution.

Abstract

Giant radio sources (GRSs) defined to be > 0.7 Mpc are the largest single objects in the Universe and can be associated with both galaxies (GRGs) and quasars (GRQs). They are important for understanding the evolution of radio galaxies and quasars whose sizes range from pc to Mpc scales and are also valuable probes of their environment. These radio-loud active galactic nuclei (RLAGN) interact with the interstellar medium of the host galaxy on small scales and the large-scale intracluster or intergalactic medium for the GRSs. With several new and sensitive surveys over the last few years, the number of known GRSs has increased many fold which has led a resurgence of interest in the field. This review article summarises our current understanding of these sources based on nearly five decades of research and discusses the importance of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) in addressing some of the outstanding questions.