SANTA CRUZ, Calif., Jan. 12 (UPI) — Like a schoolyard bully, the Andromeda Galaxy has been strong-arming smaller, weaker galaxies for millions of years, absorbing their cosmic content and moving on.
According to a new study, Andromeda’s ruthless streak makes the Milky Way Galaxy seem feeble.
After a comprehensive survey of Andromeda’s stellar populations, astronomers concluded that the movements of the galaxy’s inhabitants suggested a more turbulent past — a past (as compared to the Milky Way’s) marked by the conquest of smaller, vulnerable neighbors.
Researchers arrived at their conclusions about Andromeda after noticing a stark difference between the movements and organization of the galaxy’s older star clusters and its younger stellar arrangements.
The newly analyzed info was collected as part of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) survey, an effort that captured high-resolution imaging (at six different wavelengths) of more than half of Andromeda’s stellar population.
Older stars, the scientists found, exhibited a more disordered and irregular motion, and were more likely to be scattered in their assembly. Younger clusters were more well-ordered, moving in a more structured manner — stars operating in synch and at the same velocities.
“If you could look at the disk edge on, the stars in the well-ordered, coherent population would lie in a very thin plane, whereas the stars in the disordered population would form a much puffier layer,” explained study leader Claire Dorman, an astronomy graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Andromeda’s turbulent past is the leading explanation for the discrepancy between older and newer stars. But there are other possibilities, and the study’s authors suggest more research is needed to confirm their hypothesis. Furthermore, the scientists say Andromeda’s stars may be the norm throughout the Universe, with the Milk Way’s quieter past as the anomaly.
The new research was presented last week at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
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