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Speed Found to be Key to Galaxy Formation
QuantumCrypto writes "The All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey (AEGIS), a collaborative effort involving nearly 100 scientists in half a dozen countries, revealed a new principle in the formation of all galaxies, from disk-like spirals, cloud-like ellipticals, and just irregulars. In essence the morphology of the galaxies depends on total mass involved and the internal speed it generates. 'By defining a new speed indicator, their analysis has managed to make sense out of very chaotic-looking objects,' said Sandra Faber, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz."
Speed Found to be Key to Galaxy Formation
And they said drugs are bad!
This side effect of speed has been known for ages! What rock have these 100 scientists been hiding under?
Hell, first time I did speed, I formed at least 5 new galaxies! Then, I scrubbed them so hard with the galactic sponge that they disappeared completely. Those quasars can be a real pain to get out of your multi-dimensional trousers, though. They always leave behind a bit of redshift.
For those interested in more details, it looks like the preprint is available at http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0702643.
Originally TF was just a relationship between rotational speed and luminosity. Since luminosity is some measurement of stellar mass, it was proposed a few years ago that the true physical relationship was not with luminosity but with the total cooled baryonic mass (most of which is in the form of stars in most galaxies). So the Baryonic Tully Fisher relation was proposed, where they substituted the total mass of stars and gas instead of the luminosity. The relationship was tighter, indicating that this is closer to the fundamental relationship.
This work now takes it one more step and uses a more physical measurement for the other variable. Rotational speed of a disk galaxy tells you how deep the potential well is, assuming that all of the motion is in the form of rotation. But if there are also disordered motions, then it's really a combination of the disordered and ordered motion that tell you how deep the potential is. So they've replaced the rotation velocity with a combination of rotational velocity and velocity dispersion - and voila, the relationship is even tighter!
Very nice work.
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