New research published January 17, 2017 by a global team of researchers focused on 11,000 relatively nearby galaxies and asked why their gas their lifeblood for the formation of new stars is being violently stripped away on a widespread scale. The answer, according to these scientists, relates to the great halos of dark matter thought to surround galaxies and paints a picture of these galaxies falling through these larger halos, having their star-forming gas removed in a fast-acting process called ram-pressure stripping.
The study published in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society was based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia. It shows that the phenomenon is more prevalent than previously thought and that it drives gas from galaxies, sending them to an early death by depriving them of the material to make new stars. Toby Brown, a PhD candidate at ICRAR and Swinburne University of Technology, led the study. He said:
"During their lifetimes, galaxies can inhabit [dark matter] halos of different sizes, ranging from masses typical of our own Milky Way to halos thousands of times more massive.
As galaxies fall through these larger halos, the superheated intergalactic plasma between them removes their gas in a fast-acting process called ram-pressure stripping.
You can think of it like a giant cosmic broom that comes through and physically sweeps the gas from the galaxies."
The study published in the peer-reviewed journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society was based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Australia. It shows that the phenomenon is more prevalent than previously thought and that it drives gas from galaxies, sending them to an early death by depriving them of the material to make new stars. Toby Brown, a PhD candidate at ICRAR and Swinburne University of Technology, led the study. He said:
"During their lifetimes, galaxies can inhabit [dark matter] halos of different sizes, ranging from masses typical of our own Milky Way to halos thousands of times more massive.
As galaxies fall through these larger halos, the superheated intergalactic plasma between them removes their gas in a fast-acting process called ram-pressure stripping.
You can think of it like a giant cosmic broom that comes through and physically sweeps the gas from the galaxies."
More at the links:
http://www.businessinsider.com/ram-pressue-stripping-killing-11000-nearby-galaxies-2017-1
http://www.icrar.org/galaxy-murder-mystery/
http://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws..../12/11085410/Ram-Pressure-Stripping-Paper.pdf
