The Galactic Superwind
Letter
Eugene Sittampalam
To: r.j.wilman@durham.ac.uk
Cc: nature@nature.com
Date: 25 July
2005
Subject: Now, the Galactic Wind
High-velocity galactic outflows, driven by intense bursts of star formation and black hole accretion, are processes invoked by current theories of galaxy formation... From existing observational evidence... it is unclear whether such outflows are localized to regions of intense star formation just a few kiloparsecs in extent, or whether they instead have a significant impact on the entire galaxy and its surroundings. Here we present two-dimensional spectroscopy of a star-forming galaxy... This screen was ejected from the galaxy during a starburst several 108 years earlier and has subsequently swept up gas from the surrounding intergalactic medium and cooled. This demonstrates the galaxy-wide impact of high-redshift superwinds.
The discovery of a galaxy-wide
superwind from a young massive galaxy at redshift z ≈ 3
R. J. Wilman, J.
Gerssen, R. G. Bower, S. L. Morris, R. Bacon, P. T. de Zeeuw and R. L.
Davies, Nature 436,
227-229 (14 July 2005)
Drs R J Wilman, J
Gerssen, R G Bower and S L Morris, Department of Physics,
Dr R Bacon, CRAL-Observatoire,
Dr P T de Zeeuw, Leiden Observatory, The Netherlands
Dr R L Davies,
Astrophysics,
Dear Learned Researchers,
Congratulations on your revelatory findings. Based on the true structure of the observable universe, such galaxy-wide winds will be the norm, with nary an exception in principle. Your continued investigations here will only confirm the fact. In general, with improving instruments and observational techniques, the superwind (emanating from all around the galaxy) should become increasingly evident in all galaxies; the young and massive one here having vividly given you the unambiguous signal.
To see how all these fit into the ultimate picture, do care to check out The Cosmos, The Galaxy and other linked pages therein. Any critique of the model would be most gratefully received.
Wish you all the best in your endeavours to establish this final paradigm.
Sincerely,
PS: The solar wind, the stellar wind, the star-cluster wind, the galactic wind and the galaxy-cluster wind are all realities out there. The ones still remaining to be discovered are calling out to competent and dedicated teams of your calibre. Do heed their call!
"I
found myself getting really angry," one cosmologist said after reading
[Sittampalam's] paper. "It must have hit some real insecurity."
Discover, April 2002; pages 66 to 71.
End of Letter
The above was forwarded that week to some university
professors for comment. Quite unexpectedly, a senior and well-known professor
at
Finally, a thought on the lately
reported galactic superwind. Here, more importantly, one should look at the
ramifications on the flip side of the breakthrough discovery. The backpressure
from the superwind, that is, directed toward the galactic center, would be
stupendous as it intensifies as the inverse square of radius. Thus, increased
speeds of orbital bodies about the galactic center and increased nuclear
reactions in the galactic hub the latter enhanced many orders of times more
than what classical gravity would have us believe become direct consequences.
Hence, clearly, there'll be no more need for recourse to dark matter and
black holes anywhere in our physical universe.
PS: Times when mainstream publication of anything (and getting away with it!) was not much of a problem...
Is the Principia publishable now? Editor, Nature 376,
385 (3 August 1995)
One difficulty is that general relativity
allows black holes to exist, with all the disbelief that that requires of the rest
of us. The most serious difficulty is that, after more than a quarter of a
century, there is still no way of reconciling
Beyond Einstein's theory of gravitation? Editor, Nature 374,
759 (27 April 1995)