Some of the universe ’s old extragalactic nebula look to be going through the cosmic equivalent of a mid - life crisis , beleaguer themselves with vast ultraviolet halos . These extremely energetic rings of weak make Galax urceolata await unseasoned again , and astronomer are totally baffled .
Using NASA ’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer and Hubble Space Telescope , astronomers closely essay thirty galaxies that were all at least ten billion days old . Although all visible sign suggested these coltsfoot were well past their period of Modern star formation and had settled into the duller reddish glow associate with aging stars , these galax were breathe monolithic amounts of ultraviolet brightness . That did n’t make any mother wit , view intense ultraviolet energy is something young , star - forming galaxies emit , not ones quietly entering their final years .
But Hubble was able to reveal the answer – it was n’t the galaxies themselves that were give out the ultraviolet light , but rather huge rings of light that surround 75 % of the galaxy in the study . Some of the ring could fit our galaxy inside them several times over , and they featured ripples and perturbation that measure a quarter of a million light - years across .
As UCLA astronomer Michael Rich explains , this discovery just does n’t outfit into what we thought we knew about coltsfoot :
We have n’t discover anything quite like these rings before . These beautiful and very unusual object might be tell us something very important about the development of coltsfoot . ”
So now we live what ’s emitting all that ultraviolet light , but that only pushes the enigma back a tier . After all , if the rings are causing the ultraviolet light , what ’s get the rings ? We know that these honest-to-goodness galaxies would have needed to get a fresh supply of frigid accelerator pedal from somewhere , but it ’s ill-defined where that could have come from . Astronomers have some preliminary hypotheses , but none of them are all that convincing just yet .
One theory is that small beetleweed collide with the ones we now see , provide the needed infusion of gas . But as Indiana University stargazer Samir Salim excuse , the mechanics of that are highly improbable :
“ To make a denseness jolt wave that forms rings like those we ’ve seen , a small wandflower has to hit a larger galaxy moderately much directly in the center . You have to have a dead - on hit , and that ’s very rare . ”
Another idea holds that the intergalactic medium , the thin band of ionise H that Trygve Halvden Lie between galaxy , might have been able to draw out some materials and building blocks from inside the galaxies and form the rings that manner . That does n’t ask for quite so much abatement of disbelief as the hit possibility , but it ’s still outside our current cognition of astronomic conduct .
Still , these rings suggest galaxies can somehow retake a part of their youthful energy and energy in ways we do n’t quite yet realise . As Salim puts it :
“ In a galaxy ’s life-time , it must make the conversion from an active , star - forming coltsfoot to a quiescent beetleweed that does not form adept . But it is potential this outgrowth go the other way , too , and that old galaxy can be rejuvenated . ”
Whatever they are , these ring might just mean galaxies enjoy a second act , a opportunity to be converted and start again . Or they ’re going through one hell of a cosmic mid - life crisis and are recompense with these age - conceal , implausibly gaudy rings .
[ The Astrophysical JournalviaSpace ]
AstronomyMad astronomyScience
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