Cosmic formula

2008/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

Galaxies are not the same. Some may look like others, but in general they have a structure, shape, size, luminosity, amount of gas, etc. very different. However, some astronomers at Cardiff University have discovered that the set of all galaxy characteristics does not vary from galaxy to galaxy and that by measuring one single characteristic of a galaxy the others can be calculated.

In short, all the characteristics of any galaxy can be analyzed with a single formula. This so-called "cosmic" formula would serve to investigate the formation of galaxies, since the little similarity between galaxies makes it difficult to propose a single basic mechanism. Researchers have studied 200 randomly selected galaxies and the results seem to indicate that the evolution of the galaxy depends on the mass of the galaxy. If this is confirmed, that is, if galaxies evolve according to a single parameter, astronomers can develop a cosmic formula.