We have found a class of circular radio objects in the Evolutionary Map of the Universe Pilot Survey, using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. The objects appear in radio images as circular edge-brightened discs, about one arcmin diameter, that are unlike other objects previously reported in the literature. We explore several possible mechanisms that might cause these objects, but none seems to be a compelling explanation.

The Coma supercluster is one of the largest, nearby (∼100h−1Mpc) gravitationally bound structures known in the universe. It comprises two large clusters of galaxies and several galaxy groups intersected by a complex network of filaments, providing the perfect laboratory for studying the evolution of galaxies in a range of ‘continuous’ environments. We characterised the different components of the environment to study the properties of galaxies in the optical and ultraviolet (UV) wavebands. Our analysis shows that galaxies experience accelerated evolution as they approach the spine of the filament, suggesting that the intermediate-density environment prevalent in the filaments can accelerate the evolution of galaxies.