Space: Star Birth Scenario Debunked by 'Living Fossils'

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Space: Star Birth Scenario Debunked by 'Living Fossils'

Post by bystander » Wed Oct 06, 2010 7:44 pm

One Star Birth Scenario Debunked By 'Living Fossil' Galaxies
Space.com | Science | 06 Oct 2010
The discovery of what scientists call "living fossil" galaxies afflicted with cosmic turbulence is shedding light on how stars are born.

In the study, astronomers investigated a set of rare, relatively modern galaxies that have the same type of unusual turbulence found in more ancient galaxies.

"They're living fossils of space – galaxies we just didn't expect to find in today's world," said study co-author Andrew Green, an astronomer with Swinburne University in Australia, in a statement.

The findings could shed new light on the persisting mystery of star formation, astronomers said.

"The most exciting thing about these findings to me is how they might tell us something about how stars form," Green told SPACE.com. "Despite the fact that we live in a galaxy, the Milky Way, and we live next to a star, our sun, we still have a very poor idea of how galaxies form and evolve and how stars form from primordial gas. Now we think we might have found a link between star formation and this galactic turbulence."

In the early universe, two-thirds of all galaxies were massive, rotating disks. Mysteriously, wind speeds within these ancient galaxies were five times more variable than in today's disk galaxies.

Scientists had bandied about several causes for such turbulence. Perhaps extra gas or dwarf galaxies that were more common in the early universe stirred up the massive disks as they fell into them, drawn by their gravity.

To settle the question, Green and his colleagues investigated 65 modern-day star-forming galaxies within roughly 1 billion light-years of Earth. One light-year is the distance light travels in a single year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km).

They found 11 modern galaxies with wind speeds as variable as those seen in older, massive galaxies.

Matter falling into the galaxies could not account for such turbulence as it might with ancient disks — all that extra gas and those dwarf galaxies had largely been absorbed by other galaxies in the intervening time, the researchers said.

Instead, Green, his supervisor and co-author Karl Glazebrook, and their colleagues found the level of this variability in wind speed was linked to star-forming rates. This suggests the energy released by newly formed stars drives galactic turbulence both then and now.

"It's entirely possible that all spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, went through a stage in the past when they had high star formation rates and associated high turbulence," Green said.
High star formation rates as the origin of turbulence in early and modern disk galaxies - AW Green et al

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Re: Space: Star Birth Scenario Debunked by 'Living Fossils'

Post by neufer » Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:30 am

Turbulent, a. [L. Turbulentus, fr. turba disorder, tumult.]

1. Disturbed; agitated; tumultuous; roused to violent commotion; as, the Turbulent ocean.
  • "Calm region once, And full of peace, now tossed and Turbulent." - Milton.
2. Disposed to insubordination and disorder; restless; unquiet; refractory; as, Turbulent spirits.
  • "Sagacious, bold, and Turbulent of wit." - Dryden.
3. Producing commotion; disturbing; exciting.
  • "Whose heads that Turbulent liquor fills with fumes." - Milton.
  • ......................................................
    ___ Pericles Prince of Tyre Act 3, Scene 2

    CERIMON: 'T has been a Turbulent and stormy night.
    ......................................................
    ___ Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Act 3, Scene 1

    KING CLAUDIUS: And can you, by no drift of circumstance,
    . Get from him why he puts on this confusion,
    . Grating so harshly all his days of quiet
    . With Turbulent and dangerous lunacy?
    ......................................................
    ___ Timon of Athens Act 5, Scene 1

    TIMON: Come not to me again: but say to Athens,
    . Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
    . Upon the beached verge of the salt flood;
    . Who once a day with his embossed froth
    . The Turbulent surge shall cover: thither come,
    . And let my grave-stone be your oracle.
    --------------------------------------------------------
Turbulence, n. [L. Turbulentia: cf. F. turbulebce.] The quality or state of being Turbulent; a disturbed state; tumult; disorder; agitation. Shak.

Syn. -- Agitation; commotion; tumult; tumultuousness; termagance; unruliness; insubordination; rioting.
  • ......................................................
    ___ Troilus and Cressida Act 5, Scene 3

    ANDROMACHE: Pursue we him on knees; for I have dream'd
    . Of bloody Turbulence, and this whole night
    . Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter.
    --------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: Space: Star Birth Scenario Debunked by 'Living Fossils'

Post by bystander » Thu Oct 07, 2010 2:57 pm

Ancient Galaxies Found in Modern Universe
Discovery Space News | 07 Oct 2010
We didn't think these galalaxies existed, but they are lurking in our cosmic neighborhood.
  • Primordial galaxies have been seen in the furthest-most reaches of our Universe, but some are closer to home.
  • These galaxies are strange, lumpy and ancient looking.
  • Finding these geriatric galaxies could help us understand how rapid star formation is fuelled.
'Dinosaurs' in space found by PhD student (w/ Video)
PhysOrg | Astronomy | 07 Oct 2010

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Re: Space: Star Birth Scenario Debunked by 'Living Fossils'

Post by neufer » Thu Oct 07, 2010 4:32 pm

bystander wrote:Ancient Galaxies Found in Modern Universe
Discovery Space News | 07 Oct 2010
We didn't think these galalaxies [sic] existed,
but they are lurking in our cosmic neighborhood.

  • Primordial galaxies have been seen in the furthest-most reaches of our Universe, but some are closer to home.
  • These galaxies are strange, lumpy and ancient looking.
  • Finding these geriatric galaxies could help us understand how rapid star formation is fuelled.
Primordial galaxies are actually young galaxies (; "galalaxies" from LaLa land?).

It seems reasonable to me that at least some nearby galaxies might also be young
(; "mewling and puking in the nurse's arms").

[Geriatric dinosaur Asteriskians (like myself) are, indeed, strange, lumpy & ancient looking.]
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: Space: Star Birth Scenario Debunked by 'Living Fossils'

Post by Beyond » Thu Oct 07, 2010 6:53 pm

neufer wrote: [Geriatric dinosaur Asteriskians(like myself)are,indeed,strange,lumpy & ancient looking.]
Unfortunately i find that i can not disagree with any of that statement. It is quite true that getting old ain't for 'wimps' :!:
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

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