star formation rate Archives

November 25, 2024November 25, 2024 by Evan Gough

We’re Living in an Abnormal Galaxy

The Milky Way. This image is constructed from data from the ESA's Gaia mission that's mapping over one billion of the galaxy's stars. Image Credit: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

Astronomers often use the Milky Way as a standard for studying how galaxies form and evolve. Since we’re inside it, astronomers can study it in detail with advanced telescopes. By examining it in different wavelengths, astronomers and astrophysicists can understand its stellar population, its gas dynamics, and its other characteristics in far more detail than distant galaxies.

However, new research that examines 101 of the Milky Way’s kin shows how it differs from them.

September 16, 2024September 16, 2024 by Evan Gough

A Black Hole has Almost Halted Star Formation in its Galaxy

This is a quiescent galaxy in the early Universe named GS-10578 but nicknamed ‘Pablo’s Galaxy’. It has an SMBH in its center, and astronomers have used the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope to confirm that supermassive black holes can starve their host galaxies of the fuel they need to form new stars. Image Credit: JADES Collaboration

When the James Webb Space Telescope was launched on Christmas Day in 2021, it faced a whole host of intriguing questions. By the time it finally launched, astronomers had a big list of targets begging for the type of detailed observations that only the powerful infrared space telescope could perform. One of the targets was an ancient, massive galaxy that’s basically dead and forms no new stars.

The results are in, and an international team of astronomers know what happened to the quiescent galaxy.

July 30, 2024July 30, 2024 by Evan Gough

No Merger Needed: A Rotating Ring of Gas Creates A Hyperluminous Galaxy

This is a distant Hyper Luminous Infrared Galaxy named PJ0116-24. These galaxies experience rapid star formation that astronomers think is triggered by mergers. But this one suggests otherwise. Warm gas is shown in red and cold gas is shown in blue. Image Credit: PJ0116-24

Some galaxies experience rapid star formation hundreds or even thousands of times greater than the Milky Way. Astronomers think that mergers are behind these special galaxies, which were more abundant in the earlier Universe. But new results suggest no mergers are needed.