A group of astronomy scientists from the University of Arizona has discovered a new type of star system that has never been seen before in the universe's history. The scientists found a five-star system isolated from any parent galaxy. It was formed by blue bubbles consisting of only young blue stars spread randomly in an irregular pattern.
Milky Way from Max Patch
Hubble Telescopes Capture a New Star System
The Hubble Telescopes, the Array, and the Very Large Telescopes captured the star system. Scientists refer to the newly discovered star systems as "objects" since they are not exactly like galaxies.
The researchers conclude that they encounter a new class of star systems after noticing a contrast between clusters with a common galaxy.
The star systems were isolated from the galaxy, 300,000 light-years away. The distance challenges the usual method of forming such clusters. The scientist also found out that there are no red stars in the solar system.
The study's lead author, Michael Jones, describes the blue stars as an oasis in the desert. He explained that red stars are usually the last surviving stars because they burn slowly and have a longer lifespan than blue stars. He emphasized that the red stars die because they ran out of gas necessary to create new stars. He also said that new stars are created even with the bit of gas available. Yet there were no red stars recorded in the star system.
The Steward Observatory tweeted the discovery.
Mysterious 'blue blobs' reveal a new kind of star system, new work by Dr. Michael Jones and David Sand @azstewobs https://t.co/RgyF9FV92V
— Steward Observatory, University of Arizona (@azstewobs) June 15, 2022
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Theory Formed on the New Star System
Scientists started looking for theories explaining how the star systems were formed. With the characteristics of the star system and the distribution of the large presence of metals, defined as any elements heavier than helium, the scientist came up with a conclusion.
"This tells us that these star systems formed from gas taken from a large galaxy, because the way minerals are built is through many of the repeating star-forming rings, and you only get that in a large galaxy," Jones said.
The scientist speculated that a tidal stripping happened to create the star system. Tidal stripping occurs when two large galaxies pass and leave gas and stars behind.
The other method of stealing the gas is through ram compression. Most scientists think that the formation of the star system happens this way.
Jones compared the phenomena to a person's belly jumping into the pool. He said that when the belly of a galaxy falls into a mass field with hot gas, the gas is pushed out from behind. They thought that was the mechanism that formed with the objects.
Scientists believe that after the belly falls into the pond, the development of an elliptical galaxy will happen from the blue bubbles.
On June 15, Jones and David Sand, a professor at the University of Arizona, presented their work at the 240th Annual Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The scientists started the research after asking for a cloud map created by the Netherlands Institute of Radio Astronomy.
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