![]() Lopez places much of this discrepancy on the data available at the time of the previous studies and the technological strides scientists have made since. Instead, the models Lopez’s team created show how the winds move in opposite directions from the middle of the galaxy and then radiate outwards toward the upper right and lower left regions. While compiling this data, they found that the research runs counter to previous X-ray studies done on NGC 253, which posit that galactic winds expand spherically, or in a bubble-like shape. ![]() The study was published online in The Astrophysical Journal.īetween 19, Chandra observed NGC 253 only seven times, but by analyzing image and spectral data taken from those observations, Lopez and his team were able to use specialized computer software to identify the emission lines left by passing winds. ![]() “Our research could reflect that the size of a galaxy, or even its morphology, could impact how gas leaves these systems,” Lopez said. L earning more about how the celestial detritus that make up these vast galaxies are disseminated across the cosmos could help astronomers more deeply understand how galactic formation works in other areas of the universe. This indicates that as hot gas cools the farther away it travels from the center, it leaves behind a lower concentration of these elements. In investigating the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 253, researchers found that while the amount of these elements can vary, the abundances of oxygen, neon, magnesium, silicon, sulfur and iron peaked in the center of the galaxy and decreased with distance from it. “As they blow from one end of a galaxy to another, they alter the distribution of metals across the disk and enrich the surrounding intergalactic space.” “Galactic winds are a large part of galaxy evolution in general, ” said Sebastian Lopez, lead author of the study and a graduate student in astronomy at The Ohio State University. Using observations made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a new study details how these energetic winds, once released from the center of a galaxy, directly influence the temperature and metal distribution of the rest of the region. Much like how wind plays a key role in life on Earth by sweeping seeds, pollen and more from one place to another, galactic winds – high-powered streams of charged particles and gases – can change the chemical make-up of the host galaxies they form in, simply by blowing in a specific direction.
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