Falling Stars

I have always entertained the thought that perhaps stars were not on perfect orbits around the Core of the Galaxy. Gravitational interactions with other stars, for instance, was an easy evidence that perfect orbits were irrealistic.

Well, a recent study explored the very same issue. It turns out that stars in galaxies may not be on a stable orbit after all.

up to 30 percent of stars had compositions indicating that they were formed in parts of the galaxy far from their current positions.

When the team looked at the pattern of element abundances in detail, they found that much of the data could be explained by a model in which stars migrate radially, moving closer or farther from the galactic center with time.

newscenter.nmsu.edu...

I wonder - perhaps dark matter is not the sole cause of the high velocity of stars? Maybe the high velocity of stars in galaxies are partly caused by the fact that many of them are - to put it bluntly - spiralling down instead of making proper orbits?

Hm.

Well, that thought opened up a box in my brain that I'd thought was taped shut. That's actually quite a terrifying concept.

a reply to: swanne

a reply to: swanne

Yeah Naseem Haramein talked about something similar - a galaxy on a path through time/space objects within moving in a spiral. But those with an unequal orbit or tilted orbit would require some sort of force to slow them down and speed them up again to maintain the tilt but still be moving in a direction travelling in a spiral - if you get what I mean.

Nobody addresses that point though.

a reply to: and14263

Could it be possible you misunderstood the information presented in the OP? In here the discussion is more focused on the movements of the stars rather than of the galaxies.

According to the study, 30% of stars are diverging from a circular trajectory aroud te Core. It seems to me like this could be evidence for the proposition that 30% of the galaxy's star population is experiencing spiralling down and/or flying off.

originally posted by: Th3D0Ct0R
That's actually quite a terrifying concept.

Those Stars are obviously...
Death Stars

I do hate to seem like a scrub, but what would these stars be spiralling down towards? If my minimal knowledge of the universe is correct, it would be a black hole, yes?

a reply to: swanne

originally posted by: UnderKingsPeak
Those Stars are obviously...
Death Stars

Has siezure...Pink stars ...falling in lines... pink stars...falling in lines.....

a reply to: Th3D0Ct0R

Most probably.

a reply to: UnderKingsPeak

Hehe, good one!

Stars with irregular orbit would imply that galaxies shape actually changes with time - something which would go in-step with this theory from Harvard:

www.cfa.harvard.edu...

Astronomers decades ago proposed an evolutionary progression among normal galaxies, starting with the near-spherical ellipticals that gradually became squashed ellipticals, eventually changing into closed spirals, followed by open spirals, and finally culminating in irregular galaxies. Figure 2.19 schematically illustrates this evolutionary scheme, whose central idea is that galaxies originate with a more or less spherical shape and, as they grow older, their rotation tends to flatten them, first producing some ellipticity and then some spiral arms, prior to their breaking up as aged irregular galaxies.

(...)

On the other hand, given that the elliptical galaxies are so clearly old, then perhaps the evolutionary sequence runs in the opposite sense. Maybe irregulars are young and, having formed first, gradually evolve into ellipticals. It’s easy to imagine loose spiral galaxies wrapping up into tighter spirals and eventually becoming elliptical galaxies.

Galactic evolution necessitates the migration of stars to occur. Otherwise, perfectly circular orbits would give static galactic systems.

I wonder about the implications of this discovery on our Solar system.