Galaxy emissions – Mail.Ru

A few years ago, astronomers have come to the conclusion that only in our Milky Way galaxy can be worn invisibly tens of billions of planets, not tied to any stars. In addition, today they are about two dozen stars, rapidly fleeing from our galaxy, and even whole star cluster, run away from the giant galaxy M87. These objects are united by one thing – once they were “thrown out” from their home due to gravitational perturbations.

Russian astronomers Igor Chilingarian and Ivan Zolotukhin from SAI, who are employees of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Institute of Astrophysics and Planetology (Toulouse), proved that their neighbors thrown into intergalactic space can be whole galaxies.

Until 2006, scientists knew only 6 unusually compact elliptical galaxies, stars which reaches billion, and their size is so small, that make them look like “skinned” normal kernel galaxies. They are usually found close to the giant galaxies in the centers of large clusters of galaxies. Calculations showed that these compact objects are remnants of more ancient galaxies that fell on the large galaxies were stripped it for a couple of billion years before the dense central core. In 2009 Chilingarian found another 20 such galaxies.

And in 2013 suddenly was discovered compact elliptical galaxy located far from large galaxies that could tear it, so immediately raised the question of its origin. It became clear that the search for such objects is necessary not only in galaxy clusters and groups, but also in the space between them.

For this Chilingarian Zolotukhin and processed huge amounts of astronomical observations available to any person due to the project “Virtual Observatory” .

In this way they were able to significantly replenish this class of unusual objects, opening nearly 200 new compact galaxies. Most of them, as expected, are in large clusters of galaxies, but 11 were completely isolated, while a few million light-years from the nearest galaxy clusters.

Scientists remember that most of these galaxies was discovered quite unexpectedly. In 2012, Zolotukhin and Chilingarian participated in an international conference ADASS (Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems) – forum of researchers and developers who build systems with scientific data. And in his the master class, dedicated a new search algorithm SAMPLE compact elliptical galaxies, rehearse in advance which was not possible, scientists have become massively open new galaxy. “And right at the time of this report in front of astonished spectators, who repeated after us all the same actions on their laptops, new galaxies began to get out … people looked, and all the pot boiled and cooked, it was an unforgettable feeling,” – says Zolotukhin.

«We asked ourselves, how can we explain their origin”, – explained Chilingarian. Since the properties of isolated compact galaxies did not differ from those that are within the cluster, astronomers realized that they share the same past.

First, a massive galaxy scrapes the outer area of ​​the fallen at her small galaxy, leaving only the compact core, and then running at around a third galaxy sling light nucleus in extragalactic space.

The same thing occurs near the center of our galaxy: a supermassive black hole is able to throw off the galaxy one of the components of a binary star, accidentally podletevshy too close to it, and swallow a second .

«This is a manifestation of the same phenomenon at different scales of the universe – the effect of the sling when the interaction of three bodies lighter flies out of the system,” – said Zolotukhin. In support of this hypothesis and supports the fact that the velocity dispersion, which move compact elliptical galaxies within clusters, indicating that some of them are already on the brink of relegation.

«These small galaxies expelled from clusters in which they were expecting a lonely future “- said Chilingarian, author of the discovery, published in the journal Science. However, it helps them to survive exile, because otherwise they were to Padania on the black hole and the destruction of about a billion years.

To leave the Earth body is necessary to achieve escape velocity – 11 km / s, to escape the solar system Earth’s orbit – 42 km / c.

According to the calculations of astronomers, for flight beyond the galaxy cluster velocity fugitive should exceed 2,500 kilometers / c.

Astronomers hope that their findings will shed light on the structure and evolution of compact elliptical galaxies, as scientists suspect that these galaxies do not incorporate the mysterious dark matter, fastening the majority of other galaxies.

Scientists note that this is the first astronomical discovery, published in the Journal of Interdisciplinary made without a single photon of new observations, because all the data used in the study are publicly available. And like the opening of a fully reproduced from any computer. Astronomy is entering a new era, when examining data and be able to make discoveries of any Internet user, anywhere in the world.

Author: Paul Kotlyar