Young Galaxy?

I know I post a lot of space articles. But there is a reason to that. For stuff like this.

I was reading an article on Space.com (daily site) and they were talking about how technology dosn't last long. They also mentioned how they growth of the milky way slowed down.

Quote:

Mary Barsony, a Research Scientist with the Space Science Institute, notes "these days, the stellar birth rate in the Milky Way is only about one solar mass per year. The Galaxy�s not nearly as fertile as it once was. It seems that there was a real burst of star formation more than 10 billion years ago, though. Those early years were when the stellar population boomed."

If you wish to read and discuss the article, visit: www.space.com...

nice article. i liked the first point, the one you talked about. after that it dove into the drake equatin, which ive done to death, so they werent saying anything new there, not to me anyway.

the first part, as i mentioned, was interesting. its a way of thinking about the problem i had never thought about. it relaly took us so little time to achieve this ability, and given the existance of the universe, theres a lot. thats why it ties in to drake, but in wanting to get the span of a civilization and how long it took to get one and and how prominent they were, its a much more promising number, at least for that part

I think the stellar birth rate will highly increase during the collision between Andromeda and Milky way (which will take place in ~3 billion years), heating up clouds of gases which will coalesce to form new stars.

Originally posted by MysticalUnicorn
I know I post a lot of space articles.

That makes the forum more interesting. Keep it up

[edit on 1-10-2004 by jp1111]

The exciting part here is that they imply that, at one point, the Galaxy may have been a starburst galaxy. Starburst galaxies are some of the prettiest out there, and I like pretty things.

There's nothing unlogical in that stellar birth rate dropped some time after forming of milky way. That's just because all unstable dust/gas clouds either collapsed to stars or dissipated to space. (and when there isn't new matter coming)
These stable dust/gas cloud require some disturbance to start collapse, like nearby supernova explosion.

Originally posted by jp1111
I think the stellar birth rate will highly increase during the collision between Andromeda and Milky way (which will take place in ~3 billion years)

There's nothing to think in that, it's sure that birth rate will increase dramatically. That collision with gravities of other galaxy and shockwave cause massive increase in both galaxies even before they have merged completely.