When the galaxy stops becoming stars, that galaxy will die. Astronomers have, for the first time, observed this phenomenon in distant galaxies.
According to a CNN report, scientists using the Atacama Large millimeter / submillimeter array in Chile were able to obtain “rare observations” of the galaxy by extracting about half of the gas used to build galaxies. “
CNN reports – The galaxy’s light, known as ID 2299, is about nine billion years old, meaning astronomers observe how it looked when the universe was only a billion. Billion billion years old (now estimated) 14 Billion years old). “
The report explains that the ID2299 galaxy is losing 10,000 sun-worth of gas annually – the fuel needed to form stars, and so far 46% of the galaxy’s total cold gas has been removed, the report explains.
However, the report notes that “at a rate hundreds of times faster than our own galaxy,” the ID2299 is still forming stars, the report notes.
The formation of these stars will destroy the rest of the gas in the galaxy, and effectively “ID 2299 will die in a few tens of years,” the report explains.
The study, cited by CNN, was published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.
“This is the first time we have observed a constellation in a star,” CNN quoted Annagrazia Puglisi, a leading study researcher and postdoctoral research collaborator at the University of Durham in the UK and Seckle Nuclear Research Center in France. The distant universe will have to ‘die’ due to the emission of a large amount of cold gas. ”
What caused the death of the galaxy?
According to reports, the cause of death of this galaxy may have been a collision with another galaxy, which eventually merged to form ID2299.
Is there compelling evidence that gas loss could be the result of a collision? According to a CNN report, the study says there is – and it is called a tidal tail – “a long stream of gas and stars that come into space after a collision between two galaxies.”
However, these tidal tails are usually “too obscure” to be seen in galaxies of this distance, as the study noted that in this case the bright tail was visible to astronomers as it expanded into space.
Astronomers may need to reconsider previous theories.
Earlier, scientists believed that the “end of star formation” occurred when “the winds created by stellar formation, together with active black holes at the centers of giant galaxies, sent the materials needed to create stars into space,” CNN was quoted as saying.
However, the study noted that if the galaxy’s gas was damaged by the merger, “astronomers may need to reconsider theories on the end of star formation in galaxies.”
“Our study suggests that gas ejection can be produced by a merger and that wind and tidal tails can look very similar,” CNN quoted study co-founder and astronomer Emanuel Daddini of France’s Seckle Nuclear Research Center as saying. He added, “This can lead us to improve our understanding of how galaxies ‘die’.
This observation was an unexpected discovery.
An interesting aspect of this discovery is that “it was made while astronomers were working on different surveys of cold gas in distant galaxies,” and yet their observation of ID2299 lasted only a few minutes, “enough to catch that tidal tail.” Was, ”CNN reports. And, it remains likely that more future observations about the Galaxy’s gas emission will be revealed.
“Alma has shed new light on mechanisms that can prevent the formation of stars in distant galaxies,” CNN University College London study co-author and researcher Chiara Sarcosta said in a statement. Witnessing such a massive disruption would add an important part to the complex puzzle of galaxy evolution. ”
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