Scientists have resolved a 20-year-old dispute about what prevents new stars from being born

Using machine learning, three state-of-the-art simulations, and the latest results of a large review

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have resolved a 20-year-old controversy about star formation.

Thanks to such sky observation programs,like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, astronomers have realized that not all galaxies in the universe are actively forming stars. There is an abundant population of "frozen" objects.

The question of what stops star formation in galaxies has been debated for the past 20 years.To get to the bottom of the question, scientists from the Kavli Institute of Cosmology conducted an experiment.They used three state-of-the-art cosmological simulations – EAGLE, Illustris and IllustrisTNG.The goal is to study how various physical processes stop star formation.In the course of the work, the astronomers used a machine learning algorithm to classify galaxies into star-forming and resting.

By studying the latter, they figured out what kind of physical process—the injection of energy by supermassive black holes, supernova explosions, or shock heating of gas in massive halos—responds toIt turned out that the mass of a supermassive black hole is the most important factor inhibiting star formation.

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