New research shows that during the early universe cosmic filaments ferried cold gas and embryonic, node-shaped galaxies to a dark matter halo, where it all clumped together to form massive galaxies. The larger the galaxy, the more cold gas it needs to coalesce and to grow from a source of cold molecular gases totaling as much as 100 billion times the mass of our sun.
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
Is Information the Fifth State of Matter in the Universe?
Mystery of Light-Years-Long Strands at Milky Way’s Center
Globular Clusters: The Home of Space-Faring Civilizations?
Transcendent Human Brain to Our Future if We Survive Another Million Years (Planet Earth Report)
Will Gravitational Waves Solve One of the Biggest Mysteries in Physics? (Weekend Feature)
The Most Overhyped Space Movie to Soaring to Alpha Centauri to Mars’ Ancient Killer Asteroid (The Galaxy Report Weekend)
3,000 Light-Year-Long Anomaly In Milky Way’s Sagittarius Arm
Detecting Our Solar System’s Center of Gravity: “The Location of Absolute Stillness”