Why in News?

• Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, have made a paper on barred galaxies.

About the study

• Stars are scattered all around the galaxies, and the galaxies themselves are of different types: star-forming spiral galaxies and non-star-forming lenticular and elliptical galaxies.
• The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy. A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars.
• Since not all spiral galaxies have bars, the role of bars – why they exist, what triggers their formation and whether they foster star formation are unanswered questions.
• Some barred galaxies have shown a higher concentration of newly formed stars, suggesting that the bar nurtures star formation.
• The paper studied four such barred galaxies out of which three, in fact, appear to prevent stars from forming at their central region covered by the length of the bar.
• In three of the four observed galaxies, they find that the region covered by the length of the bar does not have enough gas (Hydrogen in the atomic form and molecular hydrogen, which is believed to condense and form stars).
• The researchers consider this observation as evidence for the bar redistributing the gas in the central region of these spiral galaxies.

Reference:

1. thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/spiral-galaxy-bars-may-prevent-new-stars/article32992069.ece