Painting the invisible Cosmic structures with radio galaxies

Radio galaxies, key players in the process of cosmic structure formation, also serve as its probes, influencing and being influenced in turn by interactions with their ambient medium. Components of the Cosmic Web, such as the filamentary structure, are difficult to characterise with direct observations. Observations of radio galaxies will allow us to infer the presence of such “invisible” structures. With the help of the South African MeerKAT radio telescope, we aim to identify tracers of the ambient medium seen in the morphology of the radio galaxies interacting with them. We use the MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Large Survey (MGCLS) dataset, which is a treasure-trove of radio galaxy images in dense environments. This poster illustrates, with key examples, how radio galaxies are a unique and powerful tool for investigating cosmic structures.