Formations Of Stars In Cores Of Galaxies From 3 Billion Years After The Big Bang

MessageToEagle.com | September 10, 2017 | Astronomy | No Comments

MessageToEagle.com – Active star formation upswells galaxies, like yeast helps bread rise, say astronomers.

Using three powerful telescopes on the ground and in orbit, they observed galaxies from 11 billion years ago, 3 billion years after the Big Bang and found explosive formation of stars in the cores of galaxies. Their observations suggest that that galaxies can change their own shape without interaction with other galaxies.

Artist’s impression of a disk galaxy transforming in to an elliptical galaxy. Stars are actively formed in the massive reservoir of dust and gas at the center of the galaxy. Credit: NAOJ

“Massive elliptical galaxies are believed to be formed from collisions of disk galaxies,” said Ken-ichi Tadaki, the lead author of two research papers and a postdoctoral researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).

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“But, it is uncertain whether all the elliptical galaxies have experienced galaxy collision. There may be an alternative path.”

Receiving faint light which has traveled 11 billion years is tough work for astronomers, who harnessed the power of three telescopes to anatomize the ancient galaxies.

Observation images of a galaxy 11 billion light-years away. Submillimeter waves detected with ALMA are shown in left, indicating the location of dense dust and gas where stars are being formed. Optical and infrared light seen with the Hubble Space Telescope are shown in the middle and right, respectively. A large galactic disk is seen in infrared, while three young star clusters are seen in optical light. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, Tadaki et al. — Observation images of a galaxy 11 billion light-years away. Left: submillimeter waves detected with ALMA; Middle: optical and infrared light seen with the HST; A large galactic disk is seen in infrared, while three young star clusters are seen in optical light. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NASA/ESA HST, Tadaki et al.

Using NAOJ’s 8.2-m Subaru Telescope in Hawai`the team picked out 25 galaxies in this epoch. Then they targeted the galaxies for observations with NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array).

First the galaxy is dominated by the disk component (left) but active star formation occurs in the huge dust and gas cloud at the center of the galaxy (center). Then the galaxy is dominated by the stellar bulge and becomes an elliptical or lenticular galaxy. Credit: NAOJ

Astronomers say that the star formation activity is so high that huge numbers of stars will be formed at the centers of the galaxies and astronomers think that ultimately the galaxies will be dominated by the stellar bulge and become elliptical or lenticular galaxies.

“Here, we obtained firm evidence that dense galactic cores can be formed without galaxy collisions. They can also be formed by intense star formation in the heart of the galaxy.” said Tadaki.

The team used the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope to observe the target galaxies and confirmed that there are no indications of massive galaxy collisions.

Original press release

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References:

ALMA

Paper