Eye on the Sky: When The Stars Stopped

February 5, 2013 at 7:29 am | Posted in Eye on the Sky, Eye on the Sky, Regular Feature, Science News | Leave a comment
Tags: nasa

Whenever you wonder what all that money spent on NASA amounted to, just remember Hubble. It never ceases to provide a wealth of wonderful imagery, and a reminder of just how big existence is.

“The galaxy in this image, catalogued as 2MASX J09442693+0429569, marks a transitional phase in this process as young, star-forming galaxies settle to become massive, red and dead galaxies.

The galaxy has tail-like features extending from it, typical of a galaxy that has recently undergone a merger. Studying the properties of the light from this galaxy, astronomers see no sign of ongoing star formation; in other words, the merger triggered an event which has used up all the gas. However, the observations suggest that star formation was strong until the very recent past, and has ceased only within the last billion years. This image therefore shows a snapshot of the moment star formation stopped forever in a galaxy.”

(via NASA)

Posted By: Skuldren for Roqoo Depot.