Bengaluru: Astronomers have observed many ‘dead’ galaxies but the process of the death itself hasn’t been observed before — until now.
Using the telescope Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers observed a galaxy, nine billion light years away from the Earth, ejecting nearly half of its star-forming gas and losing fuel.
Galaxies begin to ‘die’ when star formation stops inside them or they start losing material that forms stars.
The ID2299 galaxy is currently ejecting material worth about 10,000 suns every year in the form of cold gas ejection. It is estimated that the galaxy is currently removing 46 per cent of the total cold gas it contains.
The galaxy is still forming new stars very rapidly, but since it is also quickly running out of fuel, the remaining gas will be consumed and the galaxy is likely to be dead within a few million years.
“This is the first time we have observed a typical massive star-forming galaxy in the distant Universe about to ‘die’ because of a massive cold gas ejection,” said Annagrazia Puglisi, lead researcher of the new study from UK’s Durham University and the Saclay Nuclear Research Centre (CEA-Saclay), France, in a statement.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Astronomy Monday.
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Why ID2299 is ejecting gas
The research team behind the findings believes that the ID2299 galaxy is ejecting monumental amounts of cold gas because of a collision between two galaxies, which eventually merged to form ID2299.
Colliding galaxies are identifiable by their ‘tidal tail’ — elongated streams of gas and stars traced out in interstellar space behind the galaxies.
These tails are harder to spot in distant galaxies but since the researchers caught the bright feature just as it was launching into space, they were able to identify that the gas ejection was a part of the trail.
It was previously believed that black hole activity as well as winds caused by star formation ejected the gases out of galaxies.
“Our study suggests that gas ejections can be produced by mergers and that winds and tidal tails can appear very similar,” said study co-author Emanuele Daddi of CEA-Saclay in the statement.
Daddi believes that retrospective analysis of gas ejections captured could confirm if some of them are in fact tidal tails.
“This might lead us to revise our understanding of how galaxies ‘die’,” he added.
The discovery was a serendipitous accident and occurred when the team was inspecting data from a galaxy survey conducted by ALMA to study the properties of cold gas in far away galaxies.
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If we are seeing this now, that galaxy must be dead long ago and we will confirm it in a few million years.
Watching past from the present. Even if we find alien life a billion light years away from us, I wonder by the time we reach aliens that galaxy must be dead.
We need that Cutting technology to travel in space through portals.
There is a lot to explore in space, even though people are putting their best efforts, I feel like those won’t be sufficient, as we all know how big the universe is. I feel like we are not putting significant effort in space. Even if we had complete human life working on space research, we might see some development in some million years. For such a big space the number of people researching is almost negligible.
Can we do something about this?
Nice one. The scientist studies the incident of 9 billion light years ago. So I think the image must be 9 billoin years old because light took 9 billion years to reach our earth. At present time does the galaxy exist in the universe? Looking to the sky is like looking to the past am I right?
Right ?
Looking back in time
Waste of money, energy, time etc;
It shows how small and ubiqutous is existance of human race
Blessed be those who under estimate INDIAN perfection. You need to be an INDIAN to understand India. JaiHind
This type of galaxy interaction happened to our Milkyway galaxy with Triangulam galaxy which is called Tripuram in puranas. That is why we have the wrong notion of God Brahma the creator of Tripuram galaxy coming out of the nabi of God Vishnu the creator of our Milky way galaxy. The Triangulum galaxy further moved through Andromedo galaxy of God Shiva and got burned partly. This is given as the burning of Tripuram by God Shiva and slaying of God Brahma in the puranas . The icon of God Shiva as Nataraja represent the
merger of two creation centers in continuous circular movement.
The puranas tell us all scientific facts in simplified form.
Dont get confused , sun is not light years away not even hours away. Distance from sun to earth is 147.15 million km it takes approx 490 seconds light from sun to reach earth. Which means if something happens to sun right now, we will know it after 8 minutes and 20 seconds approx(490 seconds).
Looking at a 9 billion years old picture we are figuring out that it is dying now??? A prediction of present from the past?
That’s the only explanation if possible.
Very interesting but we can not wait nine billion years ……iam happy to more information .
Distance between Earth and Sun is 0.000015554 light years. And it takes around 8 minutes for sunlight to reach earth. Considering this fact, we can calculate that a 9 billion light years away star picture displays approx. 2 years old pic of the star.
We are looking into the past of that galaxy as it is or should i say was 9 billion years ago. I wonder what earth looks like to some observer 4.6 billion light years away from us. I believe they must be seeing a hot and hostile planet with no life (earth was being formed at that time).maybe that is why we dont find other intelligent life in outer space because all we see right now is their planet being formed or being destroyed,we just cant see them in real time.
cameras OP
Smoke and fly
If something is 9 billion light years away that also means you are seeing it as it was 9 billion years ago, it’s space time, not one but both. Cherrs
Its ignorant of this reporting journalist to mention this event as happening…in our time line on Earth we only observe the past of the universe…this has already happened…please make the necessary corrections…
Well let’s say that u see something 9 billion light years away from earth… See in the sense u feel the energy or light from 9billion light years away and I’m not knowing much about it but main thing is u intepret something happening 9 billion light years away… Now that the light Has reached the earth does it mean it is happening now?? As u know 9billion light years away mean it takes light 9 billion years to reach the earth from there… So when u know that the thing is happening like this, it actually happened in that space and we only know now bcuz we are far..
Very poor ??
Yes bt you know if its 9 billion light yrs away it means light takes 9 billion years to reach earth…that means we are seeing the galaxy’s state which was 9 billion yrs ago
What they are observing may not be current status of it, because it takes 9 billion years for the light from the galaxy to reach earth. 1 light year means the distance that light can travel 1 year. Speed of light is approximately 300000 km/s
9 billion light years away in fact means what we are.seeing today happened 9 billion years ago Light reached us after 9 billion years .Now we really don’t know whether that galaxy exists today or not.To day,s condition will be known only after 9 billion years.
Omg
People are joyed for some susses which is nothing compare to this universe
What is the there after empty in galaxy- universe and from how many years…?
Are there alines on that dying Galaxy?! If yes! We should save them?
Save your self first
What we are seeing is not the present image of the galaxy but it’s image from hundreds or billions of years ago as light takes a lot of time to reach here from a galaxy which is 9 billion light years away from here. At present the galaxy which we are observing may not even exist there.
Yes bro, you are right.
Indeed a great information served by, particularly for those who can’t reach the magazine.
Thanks to the member reporters.
Wishing a good prospect,
I don’t get this light years comparison with actual years. Sounds like bullshit. What you see is what it currently is. Just because light travels at some speed and a thing is so many light years away, how is it supposed to be an image of something that occured years ago. I agree scientists have done commendable researches which revolutionised many things. But this one logic seems crap to me
It means that the light took 9 billion years to reach us that means what we are seeing right now has actually happened 9 billion years ago if we want to see its current state then we will have to wait for 9 billion years.
That is not 9 billion year old , it is 9 billion light years away from earth and it is quite interesting to discover such rare occurrences
Please write some truthful articles instead of just making clickbait. I mean when you can’t even publish a scientific article without making it clickbait is when you know there is zero hope left.
The next step is probably going to be to remove the comment section
It’s 9 billions let light years away, not 9 billion years old.
Increase your IQ.?
If it’s 9 billion light years away that means the current photo you are seeing is 9billion years old. So we can say that it is 9billion years old.
It is the same thing .whatever we see today happened 9 billion years ago .Light took 9 billion years to reach our eyes.
When it is 9 billion light years away the light will take 9 billion years to come to our earth. So the picture is 9 billion years old. got it?
I dont trust indian scientist .
To whom u believe then ! American ! Russian ! What ever u have today it’s by Indian scientist don’t forget that ! Don’t want to say u be Indian bcoz if u were an Indian u wouldn’t have said that !!!!
I am an indian if you were that you wont say that
Then whom you trust
You don’t trust Indian Scientists because you are a illiterate person of India. Btw are you a scientist ? You have to become a scientist to say that?
Apne baapon par tumhe kyun bharosa nahi hai saale 0 ki khoj sabse pehle bharat ke hi scientist aryabhatt sir ne ki thi toh kya tujhe 0 par bhi bharosa nahi hai agar nahi hai toh tujhe apne baap par bhi bharosa nahi hona chahiye apni maa se puchh Lena ki kya tu ek baap ka hai?
Ur not indian so not believing go and stay in pakistani
Why?
NASA ‘s most scientists are from India.. Then you should not believe in NASA also…
Yes we are seeing a nine billion year old photo of the space where galaxy existed very long ago. It’s not there or maybe some other galaxy is there right now!
True. It’s not scientific journal. Some attempt to grab attention.
True. It’s not scientific journal. Some attempt to grab attention.
Oh! Good ?
9 billion years. . Its not the time. . Its 9 billion light years away from earth. . . Its the distance between the earth and that dying galaxy . . .
This is what actually happens when humans and other species tries to overcome god and this is going to be happen with us also.
किशोर, प्लीज शाट द फक आप .
You know who/what is god? To overcome god, we need to know who/what is god!
Are u trying to say ur so called God is trying to punish us for exploring the universe
The fact that media wants to push horrifying articles like this when our world is horrified of death. Do you want some memes made? this article is a frickin joke.
Many people misinterpreted the context of the article. The galaxy is 9 billion years away from the earth. It not 9 billion years ago. FYI, 1 light year=9.461e+12 kilometres. ID2299 galaxy, this much far away from the earth.
Brother if a galaxy is 9 billion light years away it means light from that galaxy takes 9 billion light years to reach us. Thus what we are seeing today happened in that galaxy 9 billion years ago.
Sir, how much time light(necessary to generate image) would take from that incident to our earth? Can you explain
Everybody saying its 9 billion years…mind it it’s not earth’s 9 billion years …its 9 billion light years.
I understand but on what basis you can say it’s nine billion light years away.
Basically we use data by measuring time bcz whatever signal we fet that is of light only.
You mean the galaxy is nine billion light years away from us?
It means that it will take 9 billion light years for you to travel to that galaxy
Not really. It means the vast distance of 9BLY that even LIGHT with nearly 3L km/sec would take 9 billion years to reach earth from there (or from earth to that galaxy). Not ‘YOU’!
This earth exists in this space like dust and we stand nowhere still we fight in the name of cast color and religion
well it died even before the formation of The Earth!
Guys, don’t get confused with the “Light years” with years. Light years are used for Distance and Years are for Time. Here the dying galaxy is in a Distance of 9 billion Light years away from planet Earth.
Light year is nothing but the distance light travels in 1 year. So, if we see something happening 9 billion light years away from earth it actually means that the light from that galaxy took 9 billion years to reach earth and originally the event has already taken place in the galaxy 9 billion years ago. It is just that we are observing it now, same goes for all the other events in the universe. What we observe happening “now” as the current status has already taken place some time ago, but we see it when we see it because light from that object takes some time to reach our eyes and then get interpreted by our brain. Also, there is nothing to be scared of. Events like this, which are too far away rarely affect us here on earth and the picture is for representative purposes, as mentioned in the caption. Other that this, I would like to suggest everyone in here to go through the article thoroughly and understand what it really says. If you don’t understand something Google it up. If you can’t do this at least don’t spread misconceptions.
Light year is nothing but the distance light travels in 1 year. So, if we see something happening 9 billion light years away from earth it actually means that the light from that galaxy took 9 billion years to reach earth and originally the event has already taken place in the galaxy 9 billion years ago. It is just that we are observing it now, same goes for all the other events in the universe. What we observe happening “now” as the current status has already taken place some time ago, but we see it when we see it because light from that object takes some time to reach our eyes and then get interpreted by our brain. Also, there is nothing to be scared of. Events like this, which are too far away rarely affect us here on earth and the picture is for representative purposes, as mentioned in the caption. Other that this, I would like to suggest everyone in here to go through the article thoroughly and understand what it really says. If you don’t understand something Google it up. If you can’t do this at least don’t spread misconceptions.
When milkyway galaxy die??
Its very useful…..
Really it’s true
Next will be milky way
The choice of using present tense is rather curious while describing an event that happened nine billion years ago. Especially, considering the hypothesis that it would have died in a several million years from the observed state. It’s quite akin to playing a CCTV footage of a crash, while investigating a tragic, fatal accident 🙁
9 billion light years signifies distance and not time.
That means it actually happened 9 billion years ago and not happening right now…
Damn!
Yes , it is the that is reaching right now. So assume how far is the galaxy. May be there is life on another galaxy rift now at such a far distance and we cannot connect with them
. As light is the fastest running object how many year will it take to communicate with each other
Light is not an object it is an wave or mixture of colours
Light is an object?, wooww……
Excuse me Im a student And I studied it a year ago that the galaxy is 9 billion light years away doesnt means that we are seeing past because LIGHT YEARS Dont SPECIFY TIME but distance between these two things there is NO POSSIBLE WAY YOU CAN SEE PAST IN TIME Pls understand the topic first before commenting things which do not make sense
You need to study harder. Understand the definition of a light year. It is right there in the term.
Excuse me Im a student And I studied it a year ago that the galaxy is 9 billion light years away doesnt means that we are seeing past because LIGHT YEARS Dont SPECIFY TIME but distance between these two things there is NO POSSIBLE WAY YOU CAN SEE PAST IN TIME Pls understand the topic first before commenting things which do not make sense
I studied it a year ago that the galaxy is 9 billion light years away doesnt means that we are seeing past because LIGHT YEARS Dont SPECIFY TIME but distance between these two things there is NO POSSIBLE WAY YOU CAN SEE PAST IN TIME Pls understand the topic first before commenting things which do not make sense
Yeah , may be….
No one commented on this but everyone becomes an expert when it comes to political articles.
Noone is here for politics unlike you who wanted to start political debate unintentionally by the way that galaxy would have been dead by now it is image of incident that happened 9 billion years ago!
You forgot to mention that the images what we are able to view now, are 9 billion years old.
The Galaxy might as well be dead by now..
That galaxy is 9 billion light years away from Earth. Not 9 billion years old. What they have observing is current status.
What we are seeing right now ishas taken place 9 billion years ago and that galaxy is so far away that it took light 9 billions years to cover the distance
The distance 9 billion light years and also the moment, now we are seeing from Earth is 9 billion old..bcz the travelling distance 9 billion light years and it takes 9 billion years to reach the earth ??
That galaxy is 9 billion light years away from Earth. Not 9 billion years old. What they have observing is current status.
1 light Year= 1 Year, this galaxy is 9 billion light years away, it means time taken by light to reach earth from that galaxy is 9 billion years. Image captured in that photo should be 9 billion years old.
Logic seems right! Even though light years is not time measuring unit, it says that it took 9 billion years for light emerging from there to reach us! So we have delayed telecast by 9 billion years later… this is based on what I have learned in books ? Nice one.