Ancient galaxies emit unexplained glow

Check this out, I thought it was pretty fascinating. From what I understand these galaxies are experiencing this during a 'milestone' period in its lifespan. Maybe its a sign its dying? Maybe its something else. But it got me thinking, what would happen when our galaxy enters one of these 'milestones' and decides to emanate that massive glow?

That would be some light show huh?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/11768e4ee464.jpg[/atsimg]

Some of the universe's oldest galaxies appear to be going through the cosmic equivalent of a mid-life crisis, surrounding themselves with immense ultraviolet halos. These highly energetic rings of light make galaxies look young again, and astronomers are totally baffled.

An astronomer from UCLA had this to say:

We haven't seen anything quite like these rings before. These beautiful and very unusual objects might be telling us something very important about the evolution of galaxies.iopscience.iop.org...

www.space.com...

Pretty insane stuff, its emitting UV light and then calming back down. What if our Milky Way has already gone through this stage?


[edit on 26/8/2010 by serbsta]

More articles covering the news.

Old galaxies surprisingly energetic

Ancient galaxies possess gigantic, mysterious ultraviolet rings

Now, I found this particular part interesting:

"In a galaxy's lifetime, it must make the transition from an active, star-forming galaxy to a quiescent galaxy that does not form stars," Samir Salim, an astronomer at Indiana University in Bloomington said. "But it is possible this process goes the other way, too, and that old galaxies can be rejuvenated."

Ok, old galaxies being rejuvenated or contracting in upon itself? Could it be that at the end of its life it reverses back to its original state and this is why they can't explain...

While young and lively galaxies have bluish hues from their active stars, older galaxies emit reddish collective starlight, researchers say. The reddish trait in ancient galaxies allowed scientists to peg the ages of most of their stars at around 10 billion years old.

Researchers have yet to explain how some of these galaxies received the infusion of fresh, cold gas that would produce the ultraviolet light halos.

I'm no space expert, but I'm a space junkie, so this is just my uneducated guess. Could they be going back in time and reversing until it recreates its primordial form? Black holes, white holes?

Just throwing it out there, since only 'YOUNG' galaxies should be emitting this kind of UV light.

Fascinating stuff. So many questions with no readily available simple answers. It would take another lifetime to get all the answers. Thanks for posting.

reply to post by Alethea


Agreed, though we seem to be discovering things at a much more frequent rate. I don't think we'll understand how galaxies truly work within our lifetime though.