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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/192774
- Title
- The mid-life crisis of the Milky Way and M31
- Author(s)
- Mutch, Simon J.; Croton, Darren J.; Poole, Gregory B.
- Abstract
- Upcoming next generation galactic surveys, such as GAIA and HERMES, will deliver unprecedented detail about the structure and make-up of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and promise to radically improve our understanding of it. However, to benefit our broader knowledge of galaxy formation and evolution we first need to quantify how typical the Galaxy is with respect to other galaxies of its type. Through modeling and comparison with a large sample of galaxies drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Galaxy Zoo, we provide tentative yet tantalizing evidence to show that both the Milky Way and nearby M31 are undergoing a critical transformation of their global properties. Both appear to possess attributes that are consistent with galaxies midway between the distinct blue and red bimodal color populations. In extragalactic surveys, such 'green valley' galaxies are transition objects whose star formation typically will have all but extinguished in less than 5 Gyrs. This finding reveals the possible future of our own galactic home, and opens a new window of opportunity to study such galactic transformations up close.
- Publication type
- Journal article
- Research centre
- Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Information and Communication Technologies. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
- Source
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 736, no. 2 (Aug 2011), article no. 84
- Publication year
- 2011
- FOR Code(s)
- 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences
- Keyword(s)
- Galaxies; Galaxy evolution; M31; Milky Way; Spiral galaxies; Star formation
- Publisher
- Institute of Physics Publishing
- ISSN
- 0004-637X
- Publisher URL
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/736/2/84
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2011 The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. The American Astronomical Society does not allow institutions to archive either the accepted manuscript or the published version of the article. However, you can find an earlier version of the full text here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.2564.
- Peer reviewed
