Galaxy produces molecular forests
13 NOVEMBER 2017
New imaging reveals a surprising array of chemicals in massive clouds surrounding new-born stars. Richard A Lovett reports.
NGC 253, or the Sculptor Galaxy, forming planets inside giant clouds.
STOCKTREK IMAGE/GETTY IMAGES
A team of Japanese radio astronomers using a giant radio telescope in Chile has found a startling array of molecules in star-forming regions of a galaxy 18 million kilometres away.
In a paper published this week in The Astrophysical Journal, graduate student Ryo Ando from the University of Tokyo and colleagues turned a sprawling collection of radio telescopes called the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) on a galaxy known as NGC 253 (also dubbed the Sculptor Galaxy, and the Silver Dollar Galaxy) in an effort to examine its star-forming regions in unprecedented detail.
The researchers chose the ALMA instrument for their work because its 66 radio telescopes are laid out in a network that can be rearranged as needed in order to allow them to zoom in on regions of interest. They also stand on a high, dry Andean plateau, 5,000 metres above sea level, high enough to be above nearly half of the Earth’s atmosphere. That allows them to zoom in on NCG 253 so tightly that they can resolve regions as small as 30 light years across.
NGC 253 was chosen as the target of the study because it is a “starburst” galaxy, meaning that it is currently an active star-forming or “baby boom” galaxy. That makes it of interest to astronomers wanting to understand both star-forming processes and the manner in which galaxies evolve.
More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/galaxy-produces-molecular-forests
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
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