Thanks to a random arrangement of galaxies, astronomers have been able to observe a massive loss of gas from an ancient galaxy, a loss that dramatically slows the rate of star formation there, a finding that sheds some light on how stars form in the young universe
Translation: Gilat Simon
It turns out that growing pains are not only characteristic of teenagers... Thanks to the random arrangement of galaxies, astronomers were able to notice a massive loss of gas from an ancient galaxy, a loss that dramatically slows down the rate of star formation there, a finding that sheds some light on how stars are formed in the young universe.
The galaxy, known as SPT2319-55, is more than 12 billion light-years from Earth. This means that scientists are now viewing the galaxy as it was when the universe was young, only a billion years old (redshift of 5.3 AU). Objects this far away are usually too faint to be seen in fine detail, but the gravitational effects of a massive galaxy between this constellation and Earth bends SPT2319-55's light like a lens, thereby both focusing the light and amplifying the its intensity (a phenomenon known as gravitational pollution).
When the astronomers observed the wavelengths at which hydroxyl molecules in the galaxy absorb light, they noticed a big change - which in turn indicated that huge blocks of gas and dust were being thrown and blown away from the galaxy at a speed of 800 km per second...! This flow is driven by pressure waves created by the explosions of a large number of dead stars. In total, the material ejected from the galaxy is enough to create more than 500 stars the size of our Sun each year, the scientists report. In the Science edition of 6.9.18/XNUMX/XNUMX.
Because the estimated escape velocity from SPT2319-55 is 650 km per second, some of the gas and dust blown out, about 10% of which scientists assume, will be lost forever in intergalactic space. The rest will eventually fall back into the galaxy, thus driving new waves of star growth for tens of millions of years.
News about the research on the Science website
More of the topic in Hayadan:
- Redshift of light from galaxy clusters - another confirmation of general relativity
- Higher, farther, earlier - scientists discovered a galaxy from the beginning of the universe
- First visualization of the dark matter network that connects galaxies
