Astronauts have, for the first time, witnessed the death of a distant galaxy, which they describe as “a very real event. ”
When all the stars in a galaxy die, and new ones no longer form, the galaxy itself ceases to exist. This happens when the entire galaxy’s gas is ejected, making it impossible for new stars to form.
According to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, scientists were “excited” to be able to capture this rare phenomenon recently using the Atacama Large Millimeter / submilimeter Array of telescopes in Chile.
It took about nine billion years for the light from the galaxy starburst ID2299 to reach Earth. So when astronomers saw it by chance, they saw the universe as it appeared at just 4.5 billion years old.
Astronomers say ID2299 loses 10,000 solar rays worth of gas every year – rapidly reducing fuel needed to create new stars. This gas leak appears to be the result of two galaxies colliding violently and coming together to form ID2299.
The galaxy is also currently generating stars at a rate hundreds of times faster than the Milky Way – using up the rest of their valuable gas supply. Because of this, ID2299 is expected to die relatively quickly, in just a few tens of thousands of years.
Southern European Observatory
“This is the first time we have seen a normal galaxy forming stars in the distant universe die from a cold gas explosion,” lead author Annagrazia Puglisi said in a statement.
Astronomers believe the phenomenon is due to galaxies coming together because they were able to see a “tidal tail”, usually too close to be seen in distant galaxies. This long flow of stars and gas, astronomers suggest, is a direct result of the galactic union.
They only looked at the galaxy for a few minutes, but it was enough to see a tidal tail.
“Our study suggests that gas ejections can be induced by unions and that winds and tidal tails can appear very similar,” said study co-author Emanuele Daddi. “This could lead us to re-examine our understanding of how galaxies die.”
If astronomers are right that the fusion caused massive gas loss, they need to reconsider prior theories about how galaxies shape and evolve – and how they die. Other theories have stated that wind from active black holes or intense star shapes are responsible for such deaths.
“In examining this single case, he revealed that this type of incident may not have been unusual at all and that many galleries were suffering from this ‘removal of gravity gas’, leading to into misinterpretations of the past, “said co – author Dr Jeremy Fensch.
“This could have a profound effect on our understanding of what actually shapes the evolution of galaxies.”