A group of global scientists has created the very first detailed map of a massive blast in a close-by galaxy, offering valuable insights into how the area between galaxies becomes contaminated with chemical elements.
The researchers examined galaxy NGC 4383 in the nearby Virgo cluster and found a gas outflow so enormous that it would take 20,000 years for light to travel from one side to the other.
This breakthrough was recently published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Dr. Adam Watts, a researcher at The University of Western Australia, led the study.The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) reported that the outflow resulted from powerful stellar explosions in the galaxy’s central regions, which could expel large amounts of hydrogen and heavier elements.
More than 50 million Suns’ worth of gas was ejected.
Dr. Watts noted that very little is understood about outflow physics and properties due to their difficulty in detection.
The expelled gas contains a high concentration of heavy elements, providing insight into the intricate process of mixing between hydrogen and metals in the outflowing gas.
In this specific scenario, we can observe the unique view of the complex mixing process between hydrogen and metals in the outflowing gas.
The presence of oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, and various other chemical elements was discovered.”
The release of gas is important for controlling the rate and duration of star formation in galaxies. The gas expelled by these explosions contaminates the space between stars in a galaxy, as well as between galaxies, and can linger in the intergalactic medium indefinitely.
The detailed map was created using data from the MAUVE survey, co-led by ICRAR researchers Professors Barbara Catinella and Luca Cortese, who also contributed to the study.
The survey utilized the MUSE Integral Field Spectrograph on the European Southern Ob rnrnThe Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory is located in northern Chile. “MAUVE was designed to study how physical processes like gas outflows can hinder the formation of stars in galaxies,” Professor Catinella explained. “NGC 4383 was our initial target because we suspected something interesting was happening, but the data surpassed our expectations.” “We hope that in the future, MAUVE observations will reveal the significance of gas outflows in the local Universe with great detail.”The authors of the study titled “MAUVE: a 6 kpc bipolar outflow launched from NGC 4383, one of the most H i-rich galaxies in the Virgo cluster” are ic Emsellem, Lodovico Coccato, Jesse van de Sande, Toby H Brown, Yago Ascasibar, Andrew Battisti, Alessandro Boselli, Timothy A Davis, Brent Groves, Sabine Thater. The study was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2024, in volume 530, issue 2, on page 1968. The DOI for the study is 10.1093/mnras/stae898.