Cosmic cartographers create stunning maps of the 'nurseries' where stars are born

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    Astronomers have created a series of stunning maps showing the stellar nurseries where stars are born, revealing the diversity of galaxies throughout the Universe.  

    Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers completed the first census of molecular clouds in the nearby Universe.

    Contrary to previous scientific opinion, these stellar nurseries do not all look and act the same, according to the team from Ohio State University.

    In fact, they found that these cosmic nurseries were as diverse as the people, homes, neighbourhoods, and regions that make up our own world. 

    This discovery is a big step forward in understanding the dark and violent places where stars are born, according to the team behind the observations. 

    Finding that as well as being more diverse than previously expected, they are are shorter lived, up to 30 million years, and much less efficient at star formation. 

    Astronomers have created a series of stunning maps showing the stellar nurseries where stars are born, revealing the diversity of galaxies throughout the Universe

    NGC4254: Shown here as an ALMA (orange) composite with Hubble Space Telescope (red) data, NGC4254 was among the nearly 100 galaxies included in the recent PHANGS project census of galaxies in the nearby Universe

    NGC4254: Shown here as an ALMA (orange) composite with Hubble Space Telescope (red) data, NGC4254 was among the nearly 100 galaxies included in the recent PHANGS project census of galaxies in the nearby Universe

    NGC1566. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers completed the first census of molecular clouds in the nearby Universe

    NGC1566. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers completed the first census of molecular clouds in the nearby Universe

    HOW DO STARS FORM? 

    Stars form from dense molecular clouds – of dust and gas – in regions of interstellar space known as stellar nurseries. 

    A single molecular cloud, which primarily contains hydrogen atoms, can be thousands of times the mass of the sun. 

    They undergo turbulent motion with the gas and dust moving over time, disturbing the atoms and molecules causing some regions to have more matter than other parts. 

    If enough gas and dust come together in one area then it begins to collapse under the weight of its own gravity. 

    As it begins to collapse it slowly gets hotter and expands outwards, taking in more of the surrounding gas and dust.

    At this point, when the region is about 900 billion miles across, it becomes a pre-stellar core and the starting process of becoming a star. 

    Then, over the next 50,000 years this will contract 92 billion miles across to become the inner core of a star. 

    The excess material is ejected out towards the poles of the star and a disc of gas and dust is formed around the star, forming a proto-star. 

    This is matter is then either incorporated into the star or expelled out into a wider disc that will lead to the formation of planets, moons, comets and asteroids.      

    Over the past five years, an international team of researchers, working with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory team, have surveyed ‘stellar nurseries.’

    They looked at the star forming regions in our part of the Universe, charting over 100,000 nurseries in 90 nearby galaxies to provide insights into the origins of stars. 

    ‘Every star in the sky, including our own sun, was born in one of these stellar nurseries,’ said Adam Leroy, associate professor of astronomy at The Ohio State University and one of the leaders of the project.

    ‘These nurseries are responsible for building galaxies and making planets, and they’re just an essential part in the story of how we got here. 

    ‘But this is really the first time we have gotten a complete view of these stellar nurseries across the whole nearby universe.’

    The project is called PHANGS-ALMA, and the research was possible thanks to the ALMA telescope array high in the Andes mountains in Chile.

    ALMA, the most powerful radio telescope in the world, allowed the team to survey the stellar nurseries across a diverse set of galaxies.

    Previous studies had mostly focused only on an individual galaxy or a part of one galaxy.

    ‘When optical telescopes take pictures, they capture the light from stars. When ALMA takes a picture, it sees the glow from the gas and dust that will form stars,’ said Jiayi Sun, co-author from Ohio State.

    ‘The new thing with PHANGS-ALMA is that we can use ALMA to take pictures of many galaxies,’ he said.

    Adding that ‘these pictures are as sharp and detailed as those taken by optical telescopes. This just hasn’t been possible before.’

    The survey has expanded the amount of data on stellar nurseries by more than tenfold, Leroy said, giving astronomers a more accurate perspective of what these nurseries are like in our corner of the wider Universe. 

    Over the past five years, an international team of researchers, working with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory team, have surveyed'stellar nurseries'

    Over the past five years, an international team of researchers, working with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory team, have surveyed ‘stellar nurseries’

    Based on these measurements, they have found that stellar nurseries are surprisingly diverse across galaxies, live only a relatively short time in astronomical terms, and are not very efficient at making stars.

    The diversity of these stellar nurseries came as something of a surprise, as conventional wisdom was that they all looked ‘more or less the same.’ 

    ‘While there are some similarities, the nature and appearance of these nurseries change within and among galaxies, just like cities or trees may vary in important ways as you go from place to place across the world,’ said Sun.

    During the PHANGS survey of nearly 100 galaxies in the nearby Universe, the team observed NGC4321, a galaxy featuring asymmetric morphology

    During the PHANGS survey of nearly 100 galaxies in the nearby Universe, the team observed NGC4321, a galaxy featuring asymmetric morphology

    NGC1385, a galaxy featuring pure flocculent disk morphology, was included in a survey that concluded that contrary to accepted scientific theory, not all stellar nurseries look or act the same

    NGC1385, a galaxy featuring pure flocculent disk morphology, was included in a survey that concluded that contrary to accepted scientific theory, not all stellar nurseries look or act the same

    For example, nurseries in larger galaxies, and those in the centre of galaxies, tend to be denser and more massive, and much more turbulent, he said.  

    ‘So the properties of these nurseries and even their ability to make stars seem to depend on the galaxies they live in,’ Sun said.

    Stellar nurseries live for up to 30 million years, a tiny amount of time on astronomical scales, and they are not very efficient at turning gas into stars.  

    ‘This survey is allowing us to build a much more complete picture of the life cycle of these regions, and we’re finding they are short-lived and inefficient,’ Leroy said.

    NGC4535 is a galaxy in the nearby Universe featuring grand-design spiral plus stellar bar morphology

    NGC4535 is a galaxy in the nearby Universe featuring grand-design spiral plus stellar bar morphology

    ‘It’s not random chance destroying these nurseries, but the new stars that they make. They are very ungrateful children.’

    Radiation and heat from young stars acts to disperse and dissolve the clouds that gave birth to them, destroying them before they can convert most of their mass.   

    ‘We have an incredible dataset here that will continue to be useful,’ Leroy said. ‘This is a new view of galaxies and we expect to be learning from it for years to come.’

    After more than five years of observations, the survey was recently completed and summarised by the PHANGS-ALMA team in two recent papers accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series and available on arXiv.

    WHAT IS ALMA?

    Deep in the Chilean desert, the Atacama Large Millimetre Array, or ALMA, is located in one of the driest places on Earth.

    At an altitude of 16,400ft, roughly half the cruising height of a jumbo jet and almost four times the height of Ben Nevis, workers had to carry oxygen tanks to complete its construction.

    Switched on in March 2013, it is the world’s most powerful ground based telescope.

    It is also the highest on the planet and, at almost £1 billion ($1.2 billion), one of the most expensive of its kind.

    Deep in the Chilean desert, the Atacama Large Millimetre Array, or ALMA, is located in one of the driest places on Earth. Switched on in March 2013, it is the world's most powerful ground based telescope

    Deep in the Chilean desert, the Atacama Large Millimetre Array, or ALMA, is located in one of the driest places on Earth. Switched on in March 2013, it is the world’s most powerful ground based telescope

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