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Astrophysicists from the University of Kansas have for the first time discovered a very rare species of galaxies, fundamentally altering our understanding of the death of these galaxies.
At the 234th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in St. Louis on Thursday, physicist Allison Kirkpatrick announced the discovery of 22 objects called "cold quasars" – incredibly bright galaxies – that are dying in the most remote areas of the world. l & # 39; universe.
University of Kansas / Michelle Vigeant
An illustration of a galaxy with a quasar in its center, surrounded by dust
Quasars are known as mbadive black holes surrounded by huge amounts of gas and dust, making them super bright, brighter than the traditional galaxy. They can be created when two galaxies merge and black holes meet.
For example, the beginning of the end of our galaxy will take place a few billion years later, as it is the case during a collision with the Andromeda galaxy, our closest neighbor, and the two galaxies will eventually create quasars resulting from the impact of the collision.
Eventually, the gases and the dust will begin to fall in the middle of the "quasars" and will be detonated in space. Astronomers have hypothesized that this point is essentially the end of galactic life, that is, when the ability to form new stars becomes "negative".
But Kirkpatrick and his team have discovered that a small part of these "cold quasars" are the new stars.
Scientists examined the sky using X-rays and infrared telescopes and found 22 distant quasars 6 to 12 billion light years away, presenting unusual shapes.
Kirkpatrick said that these distant objects shone bright enough to trigger death, but that they still contained dust clouds, suggesting that they had not yet lost the ability to give birth to new stars.
"These galaxies are rare because they are in transition," said Kirkpatrick, "we observed them before star formation went extinct in the galaxy, and this transition period is supposed to be very short."
Kirkpatrick said at the press conference that the wind was incredibly powerful when he crossed the galaxy. This period will last approximately 10 million years. A wink in view of the calendar of the universe. These "cold quasars" are therefore rare in form. His discovery is an important step in determining the maturation of galaxies, their eventual survival and death.
Kirkpatrick thinks that this will be the fate of our galaxy, but we still have 3 to 4 billion years for such an event and we may face other problems by then, such as the expanding sun ready to engulf the entire earth.
Source: CNN
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