Cosmic Winds tagged posts

How Cosmic Winds Transform Galactic Environments

A composite closeup of the bright center of spiral galaxy NGC 253.
A composite closeup of the bright center of spiral galaxy NGC 253.

Researchers model how elements move across star-forming regions. Much like how wind plays a key role in life on Earth by sweeping seeds, pollen and more from one place to another, galactic winds — high-powered streams of charged particles and gases — can change the chemical makeup of the host galaxies they form in, simply by blowing in a specific direction.

Using observations made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a new study details how these energetic winds, once released from the center of a galaxy, directly influence the temperature and metal distribution of the rest of the region.

“Galactic winds are a large part of galaxy evolution in general,” said Sebastian Lopez, lead author of the study and a graduate...

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