Part of the Universe's Missing Matter Found
upstart writes:
Part of the universe's missing matter found:
Galaxies can receive and exchange matter with their external environment thanks to the galactic winds created by stellar explosions. Via the MUSE instrument from the Very Large Telescope at the ESO, an international research team, led on the French side by the CNRS and l'Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, has mapped a galactic wind for the first time. This unique observation, which is detailed in a study published in MNRAS on 16 September 2021, helped to reveal where some of the universe's missing matter is located and to observe the formation of a nebula around a galaxy.
[...] The perfect positioning of the galaxy and the quasar, as well as the discovery of gas exchange due to galactic winds, made it possible to draw up a unique map. This enabled the first observation of a nebula in formation that is simultaneously emitting and absorbing magnesium-some of the universe's missing baryons-with the Gal1 galaxy.
This type of normal matter nebula is known in the near universe, but their existence for young galaxies in formation had only been supposed.
Scientists thus discovered some of the universe's missing baryons, thereby confirming that 80-90% of normal matter is located outside of galaxies, an observation that will help expand models for the evolution of galaxies.
Journal Reference:
Johannes Zabl, Nicolas F. Bouche, Lutz Wisotzki, et al. MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) VIII. Discovery of a Mgii emission halo probed by a quasar sightline, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab2165)
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