Red stars and big bulges: How black holes shape galaxies

Images of a small fraction of the galaxies analysed in the new study. 

The galaxies are ordered by total mass of stars (rising from bottom to top) and by ‘bulge to total stellar mass ratio’ (rising from left to right). 

Galaxies that appear redder have high values for both of these measurements, meaning that the mass of the bulge –and central black hole – determines their colour. 

Credit: A. Bluck.

The universe we can see is made up of billions of galaxies, each containing anywhere from hundreds of thousands to hundreds of billions of stars.

Large numbers of galaxies are elliptical in shape, red and mostly made up of old stars.

Another (more familiar) type is the spiral, where arms wind out in a blue thin disk from a central red bulge. On average stars in spiral galaxies tend to be much younger than those in ellipticals.

Asa Bluck

Now a group of astronomers led by Asa Bluck of the University of Victoria in Canada have found a (relatively) simple relationship between the colour of a galaxy and the size of its bulge – the more massive the bulge the redder the galaxy.

The researchers publish their results in the Oxford University Press journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Asa and his team used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to group together over half a million galaxies of all different colours, shapes, and masses.

They then used pattern recognition software to measure the shape of each one, to see how the proportion of red stars in a galaxy varies with its other properties.

They found that the mass in the central bulge (regardless of how big the disk surrounding it may be) is the key to knowing the colour of the whole galaxy.

Above a given bulge mass, galaxies are red and have no new young stars. Almost all galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centres.

The mass of the bulge is closely related to the mass of the black hole; the more massive the black hole the more energy is released into the surrounding galaxy in the form of powerful jets and X-ray emission.

This can blow away and heat up gas, stopping new stars from forming.

Asa comments: "A relatively simple result, that large galaxy bulges mean red galaxies, has profound consequences. Big bulges mean big black holes and these can put an end to star formation."

Journal Reference: Asa F. L. Bluck, J. Trevor Mendel, Sara L. Ellison, Jorge Moreno, Luc Simard, David R. Patton, Else Starkenburg. Bulge mass is king: The dominant role of the bulge in determining the fraction of passive galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2014

Galileo: Ocean Currents Shaping Europa's Icy Shell, Critical for Potential Habitats

Zonal flows in Europa-like ocean simulation. 

Image credit: University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

In a finding of relevance to the search for life in our solar system, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research have shown that the subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa may have deep currents and circulation patterns with heat and energy transfers capable of sustaining biological life.

Scientists believe Europa is one of the planetary bodies in our solar system most likely to have conditions that could sustain life, an idea reinforced by magnetometer readings from the Galileo spacecraft detecting signs of a salty, global ocean below the moon's icy shell.

Without direct measurements of the ocean, scientists have to rely on magnetometer data and observations of the moon's icy surface to account for oceanic conditions below the ice.

Regions of disrupted ice on the surface, known as chaos terrains, are one of Europa's most prominent features.

As lead author Krista Soderlund and colleagues explain in this week's online edition of the journal Nature Geosciences, the chaos terrains, which are concentrated in Europa's equatorial region, could result from convection in Europa's ice shell, accelerated by heat from the ocean.

The heat transfer and possible marine ice formation may be helping form diapirs, or warm compositionally buoyant plumes of ice that rise through the shell.

In a numerical model of Europa's ocean circulation, the researchers found that warm rising ocean currents near the equator and subsiding currents in latitudes closer to the poles could account for the location of chaos terrains and other features of Europa's surface.

Such a pattern coupled with regionally more vigorous turbulence intensifies heat transfer near the equator, which could help initiate upwelling ice pulses that create features such as the chaos terrains.

"The processes we are modeling on Europa remind us of processes on Earth," says Soderlund, where a similar process has been observed in the patterns creating marine ice in parts of Antarctica.

The current patterns modeled for Europa contrast with the patterns observed on Jupiter and Saturn, where bands of storms form because of the way their atmospheres rotate.

The physics of Europa's ocean appear to have more in common with the oceans of the "ice giants" Uranus and Neptune, which show signs of three-dimensional convection.

"This tells us foundational aspects of ocean physics," notes co-author Britney Schmidt, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology."

"More importantly, adds Schmidt, if the study's hypothesis is correct, it shows that Europa's oceans are very important as a controlling influence on the surface ice shell, offering proof of the concept that ice-ocean interactions are important to Europa.

"That means more evidence that the ocean is there, that it's active, and there are interesting interactions between the ocean and ice shell," says Schmidt, "all of which makes us think about the possibility of life on Europa."

Soderlund, who has studied icy satellites throughout her science career, looks forward to the chance to test her hypothesis through future missions to the Jovian system.

The European Space Agency's JUICE mission (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) will give a tantalizing glimpse into the characteristics of the ocean and ice shell through two flyby observations.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission concept, under study, would complement the view with global measurements.

Soderlund says she appreciates the chance "to make a prediction about Europa's subsurface currents that we might know the answer to in our lifetimes - that's pretty exciting."