Something is killing galaxies in the virgo super cluster galaxy killers are the stuff of fiction
the realm of Galactus or Thanos or perhaps the old school Borg not the real universe right
wrong but what if we told you that scientists have recently found a serial galaxy killer
in the midst of a massive super cluster for the very first time this is super cool scientists
are getting a look at what it looks like when a galaxy dies and the imagery it's just spectacular
welcome to Factnomenal in today's video we examine what is killing galaxies in
the enormous virgo super cluster and calculate the risk of our own little cosmic neighborhood
the situation we of course are part of the milky way one of three average galaxies in
our remote local group a group which just happens to be on the periphery of the virgo supercluster
organisms that do not reproduce meet their end and galaxies are much the same
galaxies like biological organisms have lifespans astronomers have recently discovered that some
of our cosmic neighbors are not living out their natural lives as long as they should
and they want to know why thankfully our milky way churns out roughly seven new stars a year
but some of the galaxies in the virgo super cluster have stopped producing stars altogether
the Virgo SC is close so close that it produces a gravitational effect on our local group called
the Virgocentric flow imagine the looming specter of a cluster 110 million light years
across exerting gravitational influence over our by comparison minuscule galaxy
the pull of the virgo SC is so strong that it decreases the milky way's linear Hubble reaction
meaning the gravitational pull is so powerful that it opposes cosmic expansion
so what does this have to do with the murder of galaxies vertigo is the virgo environment
traced in carbon monoxide a project observing gases in 50 one of the virgo galaxies using alma
the Atacama large millimeter sub-millimeter array astronomers know some of our neighboring
galaxies are dying and are beginning to have a better idea why it starts
with the unimaginable conditions within the super cluster itself an extreme environment there are
many reasons to be glad the milky way is a remote outpost and not in the middle of a giant cluster
remember the intense gravitational pull of the virgo supercluster and its sway over the milky way
it's about 65 million light years away and still affects our galaxy with elma's 65 radio telescopes
in the high desert of Chile astronomers studied 51 virgo SC galaxies to catch a glimpse inside the
dying galaxies what is all of that gravitational pull do to the galaxies inside the cluster itself
well there are extreme environments and then there's the interior of this cosmic marvel
for one it creates speeds of several thousand kilometers per second in the
intracluster medium or icm which is made up of superheated plasma common to galaxy clusters
temperatures far hotter than the sun's surface produce powerful x-rays and even what astronomers
describe as a cosmic low in intergalactic space like busy streets in an urban environment
these x-rays by the way are what enable us to determine the actual physical conditions
inside the icm such as the temperature and density of the plasma racing between galaxies
this extreme environment also holds leftovers from the formation of the cluster's galaxies which is
about 10 of the total icm material in fact the icm as a whole has roughly 10 of the galaxy clusters
matter compared to only one percent for the stars and galaxies this extreme environment is so far
away from the typical assumption of cold and empty space there is so much matter reacting
that stars are formed in the intracluster medium apart from the actual galaxies too fast and too
hot in a nutshell these are the conditions in the virgo supercluster that scientists theorize
are killing the galaxies let's look at how these conditions add up to possible galactic homicide
effects of heat velocity and matter hydrogen gas works as fuel for star creation
and without it there are no new stars created the milky way for example still has stars forming with
leftover gases and particles from its inception billions of years ago thankfully we don't have
the intense levels of plasma and heat of our cosmic semi-neighbor or we'd be toast literally
so why are some galaxies in the virgo supercluster not producing new stars and therefore dying
there are multiple theories we will look at but the prevailing thought is that new
stars are prevented from forming by tidal stripping this is basically the process of
superheated intergalactic plasma removing cold hydrogen gas from galaxies also called
gas stripping astronomers likened the process to a massive broom sweeping through the galaxies
clearing away the cold molecular gas needed to birth new stars without the necessary ingredients
to reproduce galaxies slowly face their deaths galaxies not producing new stars appear to be a
phenomenon mainly in clusters giving credence to the theory that the extreme environment of
the galaxy grouping blocks their creation there are other fascinating theories of what
exactly is killing the galaxies in the virgo super cluster let's take a look at some of the suspects
blame it on black holes nasa has discovered black holes creating hurricane-like effects within star
systems that produce velocities up to a quarter of light speed and emit a trillion times the
radiation of the sun we have already looked at the gravitational effects of a giant cluster of
galaxies in proximity what if that massive pole is combined with a black hole or worse several
the sweeping of the tidal broom through the intracluster medium would be magnified by one
or more black holes to where the galaxies are stripped of their hydrogen and other
gases at an extraordinary rate astronomers have spectacular images of the supermassive black hole
m87 which shows the very hurricane-like rotating disk of ionized gas surrounding the object imagine
the gravitational pull of m87 which harbors the same mass as six and a half billion suns
m49 is another galaxy in the virgo super cluster that emits powerful x-rays from its center
a strong indicator of yet another SMBH in the neighborhood so we know black holes are there very
large ones combine their gravitational pull with that of the enormous cluster of galaxies on each
other and there's even more possible sweeping and there's another unseen force at work that is also
a suspect dark matter dark matter is theorized to be about 85 of all matter in the universe
it does not appear to emit or interact with electromagnetic radiation so astronomers are left
to search for its effects on the universe most experts believe that dark matter is very abundant
and inevitably collides with galaxies what is the result of this violent cosmic collision
galaxies are thought to be embedded in clouds of dark matter called halos
when galaxies pass through the larger halos it's likely that the halos remove the fuel
for star formation in a process dubbed ram pressure stripping it is theorized that dark
matter races through a galaxy and strips away the gases fundamental to star creation
much like the sweeping action of the icm superheated in high velocity plasma this action
results in killing the ability to produce stars and thus galactic death but the lineup of suspects
in the killing of virgo supercluster galaxies does not end there strangulation is a suspect
researchers have now turned to another suspect strangulation this violent act is the slow choking
off of the galaxy's critical supply of cold gas needed for star formation and the galaxy is in a
sense doing it to itself astronomers know many galaxies form stars at a much faster rate than
others and therefore may not have time to replace the hydrogen and helium used in the process
without replenishing the crucial gases the galaxy starves remains from leftover
star materials for metals and researchers find that so-called dead galaxies have much higher
amounts of metals than living ones metals are in astronomical terms anything heavier than helium
what this likely means is that strangulation of galaxies creeps along slowly until the necessary
materials get used up metal content continues to rise until stars are no longer formed
evidence points towards strangulation taking about 4 billion years to kill the victim
sweeping or stripping by comparison is a faster death for galaxies since it removes
gases needed for star formation rather suddenly so is cosmic strangulation a strange enough concept
all right maybe we're reaching here but some physicists theorize an end to the universe
based on the Higgs field an energy field thought to occupy the entire universe which by interaction
in a sense gives mass to particles that would otherwise float freely around the Higgs potential
is the idea that the universe is either a true vacuum or a false one in a true vacuum
the universe is stable and low energy but a false vacuum has potential for the ultimate catastrophe
imagine a ball rolling down a hill until it gets stuck in a hole or behind a rock
the same ball if it goes all the way to the bottom is stable and low energy but this ball perched on
the hillside has potential to be dislodged it is not truly stable and could continue its downward
charge until it reaches bottom a region of the universe in a false vacuum state called metastable
could break through to another region in a true vacuum the result according to theoretical
physics would be a bubble of true vacuum that bursts in all directions at light speed
death to the universe follows could we see this effect in the virgo supercluster
are galaxies dying from this apocalyptic force hurling towards us at the speed of light
is this likely no many researchers say the idea of vacuum decay is bunk and new physics
may eternally relegate it to the science fiction shelves we do know that galaxies in the virgo
super cluster are being killed unable to produce stars and thus doomed to a long and slow death
very likely they are victims of their own extreme environments ripping away the foundations of
star creations until they simply fade away black holes may also be culprits in their demise as we
already know they exist in huge numbers in the virgo SC marauding waves of dark matter may come
like thieves in the night to rob galaxies of essential gases and hasten their lifespans and
as always in the evolution of our understanding of physics there may well be other suspects in
the killing of our cosmic neighbors so what do you think about this cosmic whodunit should we start a
save the galaxies campaign tell us in the comments and as always thank you for watching Factnomenal