In a study, an international team of astronomers researched over a group of six early galaxies with the help of Atacama Large Millimeter or submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Hubble Space Telescope. The findings of the study were published recently in ‘Nature’.
These galaxies were known to be “quenched” with little or no star formation. These galaxies had formed within the first few billion years after the Big Bang.
Earlier, the astronomers believed that something intervened to stop star formation in the otherwise rich galaxies as they had enormous supplies of cold hydrogen gas, which is the fuel needed to continue star formation.Also Read: Hot, liquid iron rains on this planet and temperature can hit 2k mark
Kate Whitaker, lead author of the study and assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, said, “The most massive galaxies in the universe lived fast and furious, creating their stars in a remarkably short amount of time. Gas, the fuel of star formation, should be plentiful at these early times in the universe.”
“We originally believed that these quenched galaxies hit the brakes just a few billion years after the Big Bang. In our new research, we’ve concluded that early galaxies didn’t actually put the brakes on, but rather, they were running on empty,” added Whitaker.Also Read | Space rocks bounced off Earth before collision with Venus: Study
Usually, these galaxies are so distant that they’re impossible to resolve, but the team used a trick. They used gravitational lensing around nearby galaxies to amplify the images of the galaxies.
Contrary to expectations, the team found that there was no sudden drop in the ability for the galaxies to turn cold gas into stars. Rather, the stars didn’t have the cold gas.Also Read | Space rocks bounced off Earth before collision with Venus: Study
Usually, these galaxies are so distant that they’re impossible to resolve, but the team used a trick. They used gravitational lensing around nearby galaxies to amplify the images of the galaxies.
Contrary to expectations, the team found that there was no sudden drop in the ability for the galaxies to turn cold gas into stars. Rather, the stars didn’t have the cold gas.
