{"id":925,"date":"2018-04-26T06:35:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T06:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/?p=925"},"modified":"2020-07-22T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T01:23:13","slug":"galaxies-grow-bigger-and-puffier-as-they-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astro3d.org.au\/galaxies-grow-bigger-and-puffier-as-they-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxies grow bigger and puffier as they age"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
A new international study involving The University of Sydney, The Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence in All-Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D) has found that galaxies grow bigger and puffier as they age.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cGalaxy shape and age are not obviously linked so the connection is surprising and may point to a deep underlying relationship,\u201d lead author from The University of Sydney and ASTRO 3D Dr Jesse van de Sande said.<\/p>\n\n\n
Co-researcher Professor Matthew Colless from ANU said that stars in a young galaxy moved in an orderly way around the galaxy\u2019s disk, much like cars around a racetrack. \u201cAll galaxies look like squashed spheres, but as they grow older they become puffier with stars going around in all directions,\u201d said Professor Colless from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Chief Investigator of ASTRO 3D. \u201cOur Milky Way is more than 13 billion years old, so it is not young anymore, but the galaxy still has both a central bulge of old stars and spiral arms of young stars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n