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New Research Suggests Initial Mass Function for Galaxies Not Universal

Posted April 26, 2012 8:52 AM

From Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories:

Over the past several years there has been debate in the astrophysics community regarding the distribution of stars in galaxies, specifically their mass range. Astronomers use an initial mass function (IMF) to calculate the numbers of different kinds of stars in any given galaxy, but what's not been clear is whether the IMF applies to all galaxies of all types. Now, a large international group of astronomers has found after studying data form 260 galaxies that the distribution of stars in early galaxies appears to be different from the distribution of stars in galaxies that formed later in time, casting doubt on the dependability of the IMF. They report their findings in their paper published in the journal Nature.

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europium
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Re: New Research Suggests Initial Mass Function for Galaxies Not Universal

04/26/2012 11:47 AM

"... after studying data from 260 galaxies ..."

Excellent news, but this immediately raises the question of what was studied before which led to the IMF currently used? It's not like we're only just now capable of determining stellar distributions where we couldn't before. Even for more distant galaxies where, in the past, our equipment could not resolve individual stars, spectral assays could still be made of even very distant galaxies which would reveal such distributions in detail and the assay limited only by the smallest 'patch of galaxy' which could be resolved. Two hundred sixty galaxies is not very many, all things considered. Moreover, as this process can be automated, we should be looking at many more before declaring our IMF as being somehow 'universal.'
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Re: New Research Suggests Initial Mass Function for Galaxies Not Universal

04/27/2012 8:06 PM

the distribution of stars in early galaxies appears to be different from the distribution of stars in galaxies that formed later in time
Is anybody surprised by this? Certainly not me. The IMF is an example of the over use of math without a good foundation of facts.
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