Tag: Cold Gas

Cosmic Champagne

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Ever heard the term ‘champagne flow?’ I’m not talking about a celebration, it’s actually a term in astronomy.  When a cluster of massive stars form and ionize the surrounding hydrogen cloud, the hot gas propels itself through the layers of cooler gas at the cluster outskirts.  When the hot gas finally bursts through to the vacuum of space, it flows rapidly like a newly opened bottle of champagne.  This is exactly what’s happening in the cluster RCW 34, a young, gaseous cluster in the southern constellation Vela. The interesting thing about this cluster is that its nearly invisible in optical...

Galaxy Death by Strangulation?

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It has been well established that Galaxies have formed during the last 13.7 Billion years of cosmic evolution.  They didn’t just pop into existence, but developed in a long and arduous process that spans immense time.  Many of them will continue to flourish for many Billions of years.  If Galaxies do indeed have a birth, as has been seen, it stands to reason that they should someday ‘die’ as well.  But have we ever seen the death of a galaxy? Have we ever seen the end for a massive collective structure of stars? We have seen galaxies collide and merge...