Scientists found a primordial galaxy with a bunch of gas and no stars
Scientists found a primordial galaxy with a bunch of gas and no stars
Scientists using the Green Bank Telescope have identified a primordial galaxy with a bunch of gas and no stars.
My home!
: motherofgod:
Get this woman her throne. The queen is back.
Sounds like the galaxy used its gas to gaslight NASA into thinking it is a galaxy
used its* gas
Damn autocorrect, fixed now. Thanks
How is this different from a nebula?
Seems like you could call this a galaxy-sized nebula
From my amateur understanding of space, it seems to be a galaxy made of just primordial hydrogen and helium, back before the first stars formed and started creating heavier elements due to the fusion reactions that power stars and the eventual supernovas that further dispersed and helped to create even more heavy elements.
Another cool theory is that the first stars are thought to have been much, much more massive, possibly up to around a thousand solar masses since they were made solely of hydrogen and helium. It's estimated that current stars couldn't get above a few hundred solar masses at most due to the existence of heavier elements in modern gas clouds. I don't understand enough to explain why the existence of heavier elements limits star size so I'll leave that to someone smarter than me.
Someone correct me if I got anything wrong, again I only have an amateur level of understanding about space.
I think the heavier elements exponentially speed up stellar death. In part, the fusion of elements makes the core denser and denser each step of the way. Going from hydrogen to helium is twice as dense, but helium is still a good fuel so it isn't an issue. As fusion continues through carbon and oxygen, it shrinks but still burns. Iron is the tipping point though because it doesn't work as a fuel at all - it triggers a core collapse, the surface falls into the void, and everything heavier than iron is instantaneously fused and thrown into the universe.
So I would guess the lesser abundance of heavier elements early on delayed that process compared to today's standards. Sort of like making a snowman in fresh powder and having to melt/wet the snow to make it pack vs having a little rain and higher temps after the powder to wet it