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VIDEO: A simulated collision between two gas-rich galaxies. Part of the gas is ejected in large tails and as the galaxies get closer they merge to form a single system. view more
Credit: Jeremy Fensch, et al
Astronomers have looked nine billion years into the past to find evidence that galaxy mergers in the early universe could shut down star formation and affect galaxy growth.
New research led by Durham University, UK, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA)-Saclay and the University of Paris-Saclay, shows that a huge amount of star-forming gas was ejected into the intergalactic medium by the coming together of two galaxies.