In an astounding revelation, galaxies are being killed off in the universe in its most extreme regions by some undetermined forces.
Reportedly, the star formation of galaxies is being shut down and the scientists in the field of astronomy want to figure out the reason behind this unprecedented development.
The new mission, called VERTICO (Virgo Environment Traced in Carbon Monoxide survey) is investigating meticulously how galaxies are being killed off by their own environment.
“As VERTICO’s principal investigator, I lead a team of 30 experts that are using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to map the molecular hydrogen gas, the fuel from which new stars are made, at high resolution across 51 galaxies in our nearest galaxy cluster, called the Virgo Cluster,” Dr Toby Brown, said.
“Virgo is our nearest massive galaxy cluster and is in the process of forming, which means that we can get a snapshot of galaxies in different stages of their lifecycle,” said Dr Brown. “This allows us to understand how star formation is shut off in cluster galaxies.”
Dr Brown is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at McMaster.
Dr Toby Brown and his colleagues, under this project, would use ALMA telescope to examine the influence of galaxy environment on the formation of stars. Also, the scientists taking part in the Canadian-led project want to discover those factors which trigger the death of star formation.
ALMA, an astronomical interferometer, is said to be ideal for detailed imaging of planet formation. The powerful observatory has been designed to capture the never-before-seen details about the stars and galaxies.
Notably, galaxy environments’ life and death are still shrouded in mystery.
