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Hubble finds Andromeda's star birth rate slowing sharply
NDTV··28 Jul
A new study using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope data found that star formation in the Andromeda galaxy has declined over the past 500 million years, with a much steeper drop in the last 40 million years. Researchers combined two Hubble surveys covering two thirds of Andromeda's disk, tracking roughly 200 million stars, findings published in The Astrophysical Journal show.
Prism
What It Means For You
- Anyone curious about the night sky gets a clearer picture of how a galaxy similar in size to our own ages over time.
- The findings help astronomers estimate what our own Milky Way's star forming future might eventually look like.
- Students and science enthusiasts can now trace the actual Hubble data behind headlines about a slowing galaxy.
What's Happening
- A Hubble Space Telescope study found that star formation in the Andromeda galaxy has declined over the past 500 million years.
- The decline has become much steeper in just the last 40 million years, researchers reported in The Astrophysical Journal.
- Scientists tracked around 200 million individual stars across two thirds of Andromeda's disk to reach this conclusion.
A Two Billion Year Old Burst Still Fading Today
- Andromeda experienced a burst of star formation about 2 billion years ago, likely triggered by a merger with another galaxy.
- Most of the recent star formation is concentrated in a ring roughly 32,000 light years from the galaxy's centre.
- The area of Andromeda closest to its satellite galaxy M32 shows reduced star formation beginning around 60 million years ago.
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