Stars made from galactic recycling material
Thursday, March 15, 2012 - 08:02
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- Ordinary galaxies such as our own Milky Way contain a plethora of gas and dust. Nevertheless, there is not nearly enough matter to explain how galaxies produce new stars at the observed rates for long. As a solution, a matter cycle on gigantic scales has been proposed, for which concrete traces exist in our local galactic neighbourhood. Now, a study led by Kate Rubin of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy has found the first direct evidence of such a key part of "galactic recycling" also in distant galaxies gas flowing back into distant galaxies.