MIREIA BONICH 1r Batx B (10)

Young galaxies are flat, but old ones are more blobby

Summary:

A survey of hundreds of galaxies₁ found a clear link between their shapes and their stars ages, galaxies with younger stars are more squashed into flatter shapes, while galaxies with older stars are more blobby

In a highly elliptical galaxy, such as a giant spiral like the Milky Way₂, the stars have ordered motion. In a more blobby galaxy with low ellipticity, the stars move more randomly. The colors of a galaxy’s stars indicated their average age.

Plotting the ages and stellar motions revealed the trend: The older the stars, the more random their motions, and so the rounder a galaxy’s shape. The younger the stars, the less random their motions, and the flatter a galaxy’s shape.

Link:

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/young-galaxies-are-flat-old-ones-are-more-blobby?tgt=nr

Publication date:

23/4/18

Scientific field:

Astronomy

Glossary:

1. Galaxies: A large system of stars held together by mutual gravitation and isolated from similar systems by vast regions of space.
2. Milky Way: The spiral galaxy containing our solar system.

Analysis comment:

This article talks about galaxies, specifically about the different forms they can present. The different forms are derived because of the ages of the galaxies, if the galaxy is young, it will have a spiral shape, if the galaxy is old it will have a rounded shape. It also tells us about the different movement that the stars can present depending on the shape of the galaxy.

From my point of view I think it is very interesting to investigate about the different galaxies, since space is a place that hides a large number of things to discover. Discovering the relationships between the characteristics of galaxies is really important.

In conclusion, there is a large number of people researching and studying space every day, and the work that these scientists do is really considerable.