ICRAR: Monster galaxies gain by eating smaller neighbors

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ICRAR: Monster galaxies gain by eating smaller neighbors

Post by bystander » Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:48 pm

Monster galaxies gain weight by eating smaller neighbors
Royal Astronomical Society | University of Western Australia |
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research | 2014 Sep 19
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Massive galaxies in the Universe have stopped making their own stars and are instead snacking on nearby galaxies, according to research by Australian scientists.

Astronomers looked at more than 22,000 galaxies and found that while smaller galaxies were very efficient at creating stars from gas, the most massive galaxies were much less efficient at star formation, producing hardly any new stars themselves, and instead grew by eating other galaxies.

The study was released today in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, published by Oxford University Press.

Dr Aaron Robotham, based at The University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said smaller ‘dwarf' galaxies were being eaten by their larger counterparts. ...

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Galaxy close-pairs, mergers, and the future fate of stellar mass - A. S. G. Robotham et al
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