Star formation in a galactic wind
Abstract
Malin and Carter1 have discovered giant shells of faint optical emission around several normal elliptical galaxies. We suggest here that these shells are composed of stars formed in shocked galactic wind material. Shocks might arise from relatively gradual increases in wind velocity, or from the collision of the wind with a tenuous intergalactic medium, and need not imply that cataclysmic events have occurred within the galaxy.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- October 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1038/287613a0
- Bibcode:
- 1980Natur.287..613F
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmic Gases;
- Elliptical Galaxies;
- Intergalactic Media;
- Star Formation;
- Stellar Winds;
- Gas Pressure;
- Gas Temperature;
- Supernovae;
- Wind Velocity;
- Astrophysics