An outside team of astronomers has found a distant coltsfoot slowly being choke by a swelled companion . This “ sick ” presentation is in reality help astronomers read the evolution of dwarf galaxies .
The aim is dub " Little Cub " since it ’s in the constellation of Ursa Major , the Great Bear . It ’s 50 million faint - days from Earth and considered a primitive galaxy , which imply its piece has n’t change much since its formation .
An challenging detail about Little Cub is that it ’s fall behind its gas , as reported in a newspaper submitted for issue in theAstrophysical Journal Letters . The culprit of this gas larceny is a much heavy comrade , known as NGC 3359 , located between 200,000 and 300,000 wakeful - age out . Without this gaseous state , the star formation in Little Cub will soon be quenched .
“ We may be witnessing the quenching of a near - pristine galaxy as it makes its first passage about a milklike Way - like galaxy , ” lead source Tiffany Hsyu , a alumna student in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz , say in astatement . “ It is rarified for such a tiny wandflower to still contain gas and be forming stars when it is in near proximity to a much larger extragalactic nebula , so this is a neat chance to see just how this operation works . Essentially , the larger galaxy is slay the fuel that the Little Cub require to form stars , which will eventually shut down star formation and lead to the smaller galaxy ’s death . ”
But its death is only one of many characteristic worth noting . Its alchemy weigh as well . Little Cub has not change much over the last 13 billion years , so we are look at a large and ( moderately ) nearby target like it ’s a souvenir from the dayspring of the universe . Studying Little Cub can cater new penetration into how galaxies have develop .
The research is being presented this calendar week at theNational Astronomy Meetingat the University of Hull .
“ We know by studying the chemistry of the Little Cub that it is one of the most primitive objects currently known in our cosmic neighborhood , ” co - writer Ryan Cooke , Royal Society University research fellow in Durham University ’s Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy , add . “ Such galaxies , which have remained dormant for most of their lives , are believed to contain the chemical component formulate a few minutes after the Big Bang . By quantify the comparative turn of hydrogen and helium molecule in the Little Cub , we might be able to hear more about what made up the Universe in the moments after it commence 13.7 billion years ago . ”
Little Cub is a wandflower that time forgot , and now we have a front wrangle tail to its eventual death .
