GALACTIC STRIPPING MYSTERY UNCOVERED

[Judi Lynn]

GALACTIC STRIPPING MYSTERY UNCOVERED

Published: 25 Jan , 2017
by Matt Williams



Artist’s impression showing the increasing effect of ram-pressure stripping in removing gas from galaxies,
sending them to an early death. Credit: ICRAR/NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)


It’s what you might call a case of galactic homicide (or “galacticide”). All over the known Universe, satellite galaxies are slowly being stripped of their lifeblood – i.e. their gases. This process is responsible for halting the formation of new stars, and therefore condemning these galaxies to a relatively quick death (by cosmological standards). And for some time, astronomers have been searching for the potential culprit.

But according to a new study by a team of international researchers from the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia, the answer may have to do with the hot gas galactic clusters routinely pass through. According to their study, which appeared recently in The Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, this mechanism may be responsible for the slow death we are seeing out there.

This process is known as “ram-pressure stripping“, which occurs when the force created by the passage of galaxies through the hot plasma that lies between them is strong enough that it is able to overcome the gravitational pull of those galaxies. At this point, they lose gas, much in the same way that a planet’s atmosphere can be slowly stripped away by the effects of Solar wind.

[center]

‘Radio color’ view of the sky above the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope, part of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAC). Credit: Natasha Hurley-Walker (ICRAR/Curtin)/Dr John Goldsmith/Celestial Visions.[/center]

For the sake of their study, titled “Cold gas stripping in satellite galaxies: from pairs to clusters“, the team relied on data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Arecibo Legacy Fast (ALFA) survey. While the SDSS provided multi-wavelength data on 10,600 satellite galaxies in the known Universe, ALFA provided data on the amount of neutral atomic hydrogen they contained.

More:
http://www.universetoday.com/133002/galactic-stripping-mystery-uncovered/

[gordianot]

1. That such tiny specks have the desire to know what is happening is amazing.

Same tiny specks are also capable of self destruction. Rather comedic.

[central scrutinizer]

2. Those galaxies should have built a wall

To keep out the murderers. And made the hot plasma pay for it.