Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2018

20 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2018 SPACE CHRONICLES Observatory of Japan, lead author of the research paper published in the journal Nature . Monster galaxies, or starburst galax- ies, form stars at a startling pace: 1000 times higher than the star for- mation rate in our Galaxy. However, why are they so active? To tackle this problem, researchers need to know the environment around the stellar nurseries. Drawing detailed maps of molecular clouds is one crucial step to scout these cosmic monsters. Tadaki and the team targeted a chimerical galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1. This galaxy was first discovered with ALMA observed an unstoppable monster in the early Universe by ALMAObservatory A stronomers obtained the most detailed anatomy chart of a monster galaxy located 12.4 billion light-years away. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub- millimeter Array (ALMA), the team revealed that the molecular clouds in the galaxy are highly unstable, which leads to run- away star formation. Monster galaxies are thought to be the ancestors of the huge elliptical galax- ies in today’s Uni- verse; therefore, these findings pave the way to under- stand the formation and evolution of such galaxies. “One of the best parts of ALMA ob- servations is to see the far-away galax- ies with unprece- dented resolution,” says Ken-ichi Tadaki, a postdoctoral re- searcher at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Sci- ence and the Na- tional Astronomical A rtist’s impression of the monster galaxy COSMOS-AzTEC-1. This galaxy is located 12.4 billion light-years away and is forming stars 1000 times more rapidly than our Milky Way Galaxy. ALMA observations revealed dense gas concentrations in the disk and intense stars formation in those concentrations. [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan]