A galaxy ’s lifespan is a bit like the passing of the season . The spring and summer are full of fresh stars form , but this pass on mode to a long wintertime of age , dying stars . So what happens in between ?
Well , like a substantial autumn , leaf - blowers are necessitate to sweep forth what were once signs of the galaxy ’s life and vitality . In this suit , the leaves are the reserve of cool petrol needed to keep build new champion , and the cetacean supernova explosions and a galaxy ’s cardinal supermassive black hole . These all send out monolithic shockwaves that scatter the gas so much that no Modern stars can form . A vivacious young galax shortly transforms into a giant , stagnant elliptic beetleweed .
compare to the other astronomic “ seasons ” , the autumn is a middling brief one , and catch a Galax urceolata mid - shift has proven tricky . But using NASA ’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer , astronomers have been able to bewitch the cosmic leaf - cetacean mammal at piece of work in NGC 3801 , which has just begun the cognitive operation of scattering and getting rid of its gas .
The initial observations suggest wizard organization in NGC 3801 began slowing down between 100 and 500 million years ago , pose it hard in middle geezerhood . Its coloring material scheme reflects that – while it has n’t yet taken on the red hue of a “ stagnant ” elliptic galaxy , its lack of new blue stars has give it a xanthous , ruby vividness in visible light .
NGC 3801 probably entered this phase when its down maven , which have much short lifespan than other whiz , run out of hydrogen and start supernova . These explosions caused huge fountain of natural gas from the interior of the galaxy , and it ’s only going to get bad . The supermassive black hole at the center of NGC 3801 has already give off a series of colossal shockwaves that are moving through the galaxy at about two million land mile per hour .
Because of the vast size of the galaxy , it ’ll take time for the shockwave to reach the stunned reach of NGC 3801 – say , another ten million years – but those waves will basically finish up off all remaining hydrogen gas pedal in the galaxy and signal that it is now truly beat . The entire prison term it carry for this galaxy to “ pass ” is at most about a billion years , and the black hole shockwaves we ’re observing now will take much less time than that to do their work .
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society : LettersviaNASA / JPL .
AstronomyNASAScienceSpace
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