Madrid. (EFE). – An international team of researchers has observed the formation of a Galaxy very far from the violent collision of two others, that took place when the age of Universe was only three billion years.
This work, which involved researchers from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, is published in Nature and the data contradict the common theory that explains the formation of very massive galaxies from the incorporation of smaller ones.
When the universe was three or four billion years, recalled in a note the IAC, was already populated by massive elliptical galaxies composed of old red stars. The scientific community “has taken many turns” to the question of whether these galaxies formed slowly over time by incorporating smaller galaxies (the most popular model and accepted) or if they did rapidly from powerful collisions between two large galaxies. This study indicates that the latter model is large massive violent collisions and mergers of these galaxies generator.
Herschel Space Observatory, a mission of the ESA (European Space Agency) with participation from NASA, took images through clouds of dust from a rare fusion of two massive galaxies.
successive studies performed by several space and ground telescopes (including the Hubble Space Telescope and the William Herschel Telescope, Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, on the island of La Palma) describe two intertwined distant galaxies that make stars frantically.
Finally, the couple is expected to settle and become a supergiant elliptical galaxy alone. “We are looking at an earlier stage in the life of red and dead galaxies, teen explosion of activity does not last long,” says the director of the study, Hai Fu, University of California (Irvine).
Meanwhile, Ismael Perez Fournon, IAC, said: “These are exploding galaxies merged to form new stars and are completely covered by dust.” “Without the far infrared sensitive detectors Herschel SPIRE instrument would not have been able to see through the dust the action taking place behind,” he adds.
characterizations revealed the couple in collision that were generating the equivalent of 2,000 suns per year (by comparison, the Milky Way ‘incubated’ between two and three suns per year.) The total number of stars of the two bodies observed is about 400 billion suns.
These results are published after the April 29, 2013 Herschel space observatory had just completed his mission to cool helium that allowed its three instruments.
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