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https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2017/july/milky-way-origin-matter-galaxy/
In a first-of-its-kind analysis, Northwestern University astrophysicists have discovered that, contrary to previously standard lore, up to half of the matter in our Milky Way galaxy may come from distant galaxies. As a result, each one of us may be made in part from extragalactic matter.
Using supercomputer simulations, the research team found a major and unexpected new mode for how galaxies, including our own Milky Way, acquired their matter: intergalactic transfer. The simulations show that supernova explosions eject copious amounts of gas from galaxies, which causes atoms to be transported from one galaxy to another via powerful galactic winds. Intergalactic transfer is a newly identified phenomenon, which simulations indicate will be critical for understanding how galaxies evolve.
"Given how much of the matter out of which we formed may have come from other galaxies, we could consider ourselves space travelers or extragalactic immigrants," said Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, a postdoctoral fellow in Northwestern's astrophysics center, CIERA (Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics), who led the study. "It is likely that much of the Milky Way's matter was in other galaxies before it was kicked out by a powerful wind, traveled across intergalactic space and eventually found its new home in the Milky Way."
Galaxies are far apart from each other, so even though galactic winds propagate at several hundred kilometers per second, this process occurred over several billion years.
Abstract and full journal article are available on arXiv: The Cosmic Baryon Cycle and Galaxy Mass Assembly in the FIRE Simulations
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday July 29 2017, @04:33AM (7 children)
Particles, froj, particles! Of course, particles propelled by a super-nova could be travelling at near light-speed, certainly the light from the super-novae are, and they are particles, photons, so there is that. Nothing to slow them down or stop them, until they encounter our particular gravitational neighborhood.
Nice to know that interstellar space is not actually empty, filled with the solar winds of billions and billions of stars. And inter-Galactic space may equally not be so empty, filled with the galactic winds. I, for one just love the idea of galactic winds. All I would need, heck, let's just go to the original [poetryfoundation.org]:
Ah, Galactic wind, like a whetted knife, sharp is the course we set, to NGC 891!
(Practical question: how big, exactly, do our intergalactic sails need to be? And if NGC 891 is 30 million light-years away, and the best we can do with our sails is some fraction of the intergalactic wind speed, how long will it take us to get there? Froj, things like this do not keep me up at night. )
(Score: 3, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday July 29 2017, @05:57AM (2 children)
Could alien civilizations in the southern galaxies be using wind power to send their people? Without a barrier to stop the aliens, how do we know they're not already here? Bringing crime, bringing drugs, killing our birds, interfering in our elections, and undermining our values. We must prevail. For family, for freedom, for country, and for God. Our shared Western civilization must triumph.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 29 2017, @08:56AM (1 child)
Just like the Donald to think that the RA declension of a galaxy makes any difference at all. Tiny hands, tiny galaxy, tiny brain.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 29 2017, @12:44PM
Join me on the ground as I speak to ACs live who think that parody Trump is a real dumbshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 29 2017, @05:46PM (3 children)
There is no such thing as a particle: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/186292/what-really-is-a-particle [stackexchange.com]
Since particles do not exist, there is no way the galactic wind can be made from them...
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday July 29 2017, @06:09PM (2 children)
From the stackexchange:
I think we have found the problem!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 31 2017, @01:14PM (1 child)
Without data about the dick the tiny balls service, the information on the size of the balls is irrelevant for establishing whether or not this size constitutes a problem.
Just saying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 01 2017, @04:48AM
Typical Terran, thinking about spatial parameters, when it is the efficaciousness of the organ that matters. (Just to let you know, I slipped a micro-dick into you while you were reading this post. You probably felt nothing. And not to worry, the gestational period is about 50 of your Earth years. They will probably call it "cancer". Thank you for furthering our species, you cuckservative!