The Press Stories
Every star in the universe has its own life cycle, which can last from tens of billions to billions of years (depending on its type). After running out of fuel in the center, stars are added to white dwarfs (which emit very little light) or black holes (which emit no light).
In galaxies where star formation still occurs, young stars continue to appear, which in a way “compensates” for the loss of the brightness of the old ones. However, in the absence of conditions for the birth of new stars, the galaxy begins to slowly exit, gradually losing its previous luminosity. This is the first time that astronomers using the equipment of the European Southern Laboratory (ESO) have seen the beginning.
The galaxy galaxy to cosmic destruction
Observations made by In Chile, ESO’s ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Series) Telescope revealed changes in galaxy ID 2299. It is located 9 billion light years from Earth. Due to the finite speed of light, we see it when the universe was over 4.5 billion years old.
According to the researchers, this type of ID2299 is rapidly losing the gas that makes up the cold star that should still be found in the young galaxy. Their calculations show that 46 percent. The total mass of such gas has already escaped into intergalactic space, and the galaxy loses gas with a mass of about 10,000 m3 annually. The mass of the sun. Scientists are surprised because they have not yet noticed the loss of materials that could be the building blocks of new stars.
The collision of the two galaxies that formed ID 2299 caused a high rate of “removal” of the star-forming gas. Researchers believe this is because behind the galaxy they observed “wave” comets and stars being ejected from the galaxy. The gas that forms the cold star also flows into intergalactic space. Such “tidal tails” are the result of the gravitational pull of a galaxy’s mass, which occurs during a collision.
Researchers have calculated the date of the galaxy’s symbolic end
ID 2299 not only loses its star-forming material very quickly, but also finds the most violent star formation in the remaining gas in the galaxy. Young stars form at a rare rate, several hundred times faster than similar places, e.g. In the Milky Way. This means that the galaxy ID 2299 uses the cold gas resources very quickly (and is therefore constantly declining), as if rushing towards its death.
Researchers estimate that the cold gas reserves of ID 2299 will be completely depleted within tens of thousands of years. On a cosmic scale, it is like the blink of an eye. When that happens, there will be no recovery for the galaxy. For some time it glows with existing stars, however, which gradually die out, slowly losing their luster.
