Posted on 01/18/2017 8:41:13 AM PST by MtnClimber
It’s the big astrophysical whodunnit. Across the Universe, galaxies are being killed and the question scientists want answered is, what’s killing them?
New research published today by a global team of researchers, based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), seeks to answer that question. The study reveals that a phenomenon called ram-pressure stripping is more prevalent than previously thought, driving gas from galaxies and sending them to an early death by depriving them of the material to make new stars.
The study of 11,000 galaxies shows their gas—the lifeblood for star formation—is being violently stripped away on a widespread scale throughout the local Universe.
Toby Brown, leader of the study and PhD candidate at ICRAR and Swinburne University of Technology, said the image we paint as astronomers is that galaxies are embedded in clouds of dark matter that we call dark matter halos.
Dark matter is the mysterious material that despite being invisible accounts for roughly 27 per cent of our Universe, while ordinary matter makes up just 5 per cent. The remaining 68 per cent is dark energy.
“During their lifetimes, galaxies can inhabit halos of different sizes, ranging from masses typical of our own Milky Way to halos thousands of times more massive,” Mr Brown said.
“As galaxies fall through these larger halos, the superheated intergalactic plasma between them removes their gas in a fast-acting process called ram-pressure stripping.
(Excerpt) Read more at icrar.org ...
I thought dark matter was only a theory.
I accuse climate change..
I’m all in favor of less gas, but I don’t want to kill anybody. Maybe instead of pressure ramming the gas away, we could just send a giant Gas-X tablet.
Is this happening now or did it happen thousands of years ago and we are just now seeing the evidence of it.
Galactic ManBearPig alert.
It’s discharging from Uranus.
Put Ms. Marple on it. Case solved.
Fracking.
Nice. A worm that eats galaxies, whole.
I was just about ready to post a similar pic with this comment:
Didn’t they watch Startrek? It is likely the planet killer is doing it.
Not even that. A theory is formulated after experimentation reveals certain observable behavior(s). And then the experiment is repeated.
By their own words, cosmologists and astro-physicists say dark matter is invisible and its effect on 'normal' matter is unpredictable.
Thus, 'dark' matter and 'dark' energy are nothing more that mathematical constructs that help them explain why their equations don't work. Sort of a "plugin" made of whole cloth.
We can observe the effects of dark matter quite easily, but we don’t know the identities of the constituent particles.
If dark matter is subject to gravitation, as is theorized, then why doesn’t it clump together, forming bodies that we’d be crashing into. Yet nothing like this is seen...anywhere.
Just saying....
Russians.
As a Physics Major, the thing that concerned me most was the almost universal use of “Constants” that had to be used to get results that agreed with observed results.
I always considered a “constant” an excuse for lack of knowledge.
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