Brutally efficient galaxy SPITS OUT STARS at 'maximum rate' Astroboffins have spotted a brutally efficient galaxy, busily converting almost all available fuel into birthing new stars. Brutally efficient star-making galaxy The "green" galaxy, spotted by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Hubble as well as the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer in the French Alps, …
"And the galaxy is so efficient, that the star formation is likely to be all done and dusted in the equivalent of a few moments in a galactic lifetime. In just a few tens of millions of years[A few billion years ago], the gas will be[was] used up and the galaxy will mature[d] into a massive elliptical galaxy."
Since it is 6 billion light years away, this has all finished, shirley?
"Not if your speaking from the Time reference of Earth."
But Dr Mouse was, I thought. Just because what we observe has taken a while to get here, due to the snail like speed of light, it doesn't mean it hasn't happened, we're simply watching one of the oldest news broadcasts in the universe.
If an earthquake happens in China tonight, and I see it on the news tomorrow, the earthquake still happened at the original time in a single instance, n'est pas?
I'm glad someone else noticed the unfairness of comparing this distant galaxy's past wild antics against our own galaxy's sensible and mature behaviour. Who is to say the Mliky Way wasn't a bit of a party animal in it's youth? For all we know, this distant galaxy has done the cosmic equivalant of swapping the motorbike for a people carrier, drinking red wine instead of cheap cider and settling down into a boring middle age.
humans are like, ewwwwwww, so retro and ick, such a self inflated bunch of temporary clumps of dust! When the real intelligence gets here, we will be long gone, if intelligence even exists as we 'know' it, you know, us humans being so fkkng smart and all that...... Then again, maybe humans are the only self aware blobs in the whole place, and actually, considering our limited space travel capability, thats about all we are can be dealing with. And so far all we manage to do, is breed like copulating muons, find better ways to murder each other and seek remedies from looking at distant galaxies.
Yes, very big place our Universe.
At 6 billion years old (at least) now, many of the original stars have likely left the main sequence. The results of the stellar explosions may have created significant amounts of dust and gas, it may well resemble the Milky Way by now...
Must be a Catholic galaxy, pumping out stars as "arrows for Jesus's quiver" (and seeking intergalactic assistance for all the kids, and for the fertility treatments to allow it to be yotta-mom.)
(DAE find that whole "I only value my offspring as weapons to be used and discarded when no longer suitable to purpose" mindset of the thumpers as disconcerting as I do?)
(yes, I know this galaxy isn't going to have anywhere near 10^24 stars, but none of the other SI prefixes sound close enough to "octo".)
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