Milky Way Analogue Isolated Disk Galaxy

Funded in part by: National Science Foundation Award: ACI-1445176 
The Centrality of Advance Dgitally Enabled Science: CADENS 

The properties of disk galaxies are determined by a balance between self-gravity, angular momentum, and "feedback" from the supernova explosions produced by young, massive stars. Gravity causes gas in the interstellar medium to condense and collapse, forming new generations of stars. After only a few million years, supernova explosions produced by the most massive newborn stars in turn disrupt their natal star forming regions, preventing further star formation and redistributing gas from lower densities. Later, the gas recondenses, and collapses forming another generation of stars. This ongoing cycle of stellar collapse, birth, death, and rarefacation proceeds for billions of years, until the gas supply is slowly exhausted. This movie shows the evolution of a simulated analogue for the Milky Way galaxy over the course of 50 million years.