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    star formation tagged posts

    Astronomers find Cosmic Rays driving Galaxy’s Winds

    October 26, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Credit: Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences- IPM & European Southern Observatory (ESO)

    Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have discovered an important new clue about how galaxies put the brakes on vigorous episodes of star formation. Their new study of the neighboring galaxy M33 indicates that fast-moving cosmicray electrons can drive winds that blow away the gas needed to form new stars.

    Such winds are responsible for slowing the rate of star formation as galaxies evolve over time. However, shock waves from supernova explosions and energetic, black hole-powered jets of material coming from galactic cores have been considered the primary drivers of those winds...

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    ALMA discovers Birth Cry from a Baby Star in the Small Magellanic Cloud

    August 31, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have observed “baby stars” in the Small Magellanic Cloud, having an environment similar to the early universe. Toward one of the baby stars, they found molecular outflow, which has similar properties to those seen in the Milky Way galaxy, giving a new perspective on the birth of stars.

    The heavy elements in interstellar matter significantly impact the mechanism of star formation. In the early universe, the abundance of heavy elements was lower than in the present universe because there was not enough time for nucleosynthesis to produce heavy elements in stars. It has not been well understood how star formation in such an environment differs from present-day star formation.

    An international team led by Professor Toshikazu Onishi, Osaka...

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    Hubble finds Early, Massive Galaxies Running on Empty

    September 25, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    These images are composites from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The boxed and pullout images show two of the six, distant, massive galaxies where scientists found star formation has ceased due to the depletion of a fuel source – cold hydrogen gas. Hubble, together with ALMA, found these odd galaxies when they combined forces with the “natural lens” in space created by foreground massive galaxy clusters. The clusters’ gravity stretches and amplifies the light of the background galaxies in an effect called gravitational lensing. This phenomenon allows astronomers to use massive galaxy clusters as natural magnifying glasses to study details in the distant galaxies that would otherwise be impossible to see...
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    Galactic Fireworks: New ESO images reveal stunning features of Nearby Galaxies

    July 17, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A team of astronomers has released new observations of nearby galaxies that resemble colourful cosmic fireworks. The images, obtained with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), show different components of the galaxies in distinct colours, allowing astronomers to pinpoint the locations of young stars and the gas they warm up around them. By combining these new observations with data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, the team is helping shed new light on what triggers gas to form stars.

    A team of astronomers has released new observations of nearby galaxies that resemble colourful cosmic fireworks...

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