Consisting of thick, dense cold gas, a cover stretches across a galaxy like a blanket. While an effective tool for helping make stars, this cover presents a challenge for astrophysicists hoping to learn how the radiation that stars produce could be used in the ionization process. Scientists have been on a quest for decades to find just the right galaxy with this character trait.
By focusing on large, star-forming galaxies in the universe, researchers at Johns Hopkins University have been able to measure its radiation leaks in an effort to better understand how the universe evolved as the first stars were formed.
Sanchayeeta Borthakur, an assistant research scientist in the university’s Department of Physics and Astronomy reports in a paper published online Oct. 9, in the journal Science, that an indicator used for studying star-forming galaxies that leak radiation, is an effective measurement tool for other scientists to use.
The researchers used the radiation leak measurement method to help find the ideal star-forming galaxy that contained holes in its cold gas cover. Studying the radiation that seeps through these holes has been an ongoing conundrum for scientists for years.
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