Galactic 'wind' stifling star formation is most distant yet seen

For the first time, a powerful "wind" of molecules has been detected in a galaxy located 12 billion light-years away. Probing a time when the universe was less than 10 percent of its current age, University of Texas at Austin astronomer Justin Spilker's research sheds light on how the earliest galaxies regulated the birth of stars to keep from blowing themselves apart. The research will appear in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Science.

"Galaxies are complicated, messy beasts, and we think outflows and winds are critical pieces to how they form and evolve, regulating their ability to grow," Spilker said.

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Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Spilker/UT-Austin; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello; AURA/NSF

ALMA, aided by a gravitational lens, imaged the outflow, or 'wind,' from a galaxy seen when the universe was only one billion years old.

The ALMA image (circle call out) shows the location of hydroxyl (OH) molecules. These molecules trace the location of star-forming gas as it is fleeing the galaxy, driven by either supernovas or a black-hole powered 'wind.'

The background star field (Blanco Telescope Dark Energy Survey) shows the location of the galaxy. The circular, double-lobe shape of the distant galaxy is due to the distortion caused by the cosmic magnifying effect of an intervening galaxy

Source / Image Courtesy

Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, D. Berry

An artist impression of an outflow of molecular gas from an active star-forming galaxy.

Source / Image Courtesy

Armed with state-of-the-art supercomputer models, scientists have shown that colliding neutron stars can produce the energetic jet required for a gamma-ray burst. Earlier simulations demonstrated that mergers could make black holes.

Others had shown that the high-speed particle jets needed to make a gamma-ray burst would continue if placed in the swirling wreckage of a recent merger.

Now, the simulations reveal the middle step of the process--how the merging stars' magnetic field organizes itself into outwardly directed components capable of forming a jet.

This supercomputer simulation shows one of the most violent events in the universe: a pair of neutron stars colliding, merging and forming a black hole.

A neutron star is the compressed core left behind when a star born with between eight and 30 times the sun's mass explodes as a supernova. Neutron stars pack about 1.5 times the mass of the sun — equivalent to about half a million Earths — into a ball just 12 miles (20 km) across.

Measurements of unprecedented detail returned by Japan's Hitomi satellite have allowed scientists to track the motion of X-ray-emitting gas at the heart of the Perseus cluster of galaxies for the first time.

The results showcase the long-awaited premiere of a next-generation X-ray instrument whose key components were developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.