Galaxies are being killed off in some of the most extreme regions of the universe and scientists are trying to work out how this happens.
The cause of death is thought to be a shutdown of star formation, and a new project aims to use one of the world’s leading telescopes to observe the process in detail.
The Canadian-led project is called the Virgo Environment Traced in Carbon Monoxide survey (VERTICO).
It will investigate how galaxies can be killed off by their own environment.
Principal investigator Toby Brown explained in The Conversation that he is leading a team of 30 experts who will be using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescope to map stars being made in our nearest galaxy cluster, the Virgo Cluster.
The Virgo Cluster contains up to 2,000 galaxies.
The team will map molecular hydrogen gas in the galaxies because this is the fuel used to make stars.
ALMA is actually made up of 66 radio telescopes in the Chilean desert and is said to be ideal for studying clouds of dense gas that form new stars.
Galaxy environments and how they dictate the life and death of galaxies are shrouded in mystery.
However, scientists do know that galaxy clusters like the Virgo Cluster are one of the most extreme environments in the universe.
They are known for huge gravitational forces, super-high speeds and extreme temperatures.
This can make the center of some galaxies inhospitable and other galaxies that come into contact with the areas can be killed off.
The VERTICO project aims to observe how this happens.
A violent process called ram pressure stripping can remove gas from a galaxy that falls through clusters.
When all the gas for forming stars is removed a galaxy is essentially a dead object.
Some galaxy cluster environments can also stop gases cooling in a galaxy and starve it of new star formation.
The scientists taking part in the project want to piece together already known facts like this to get a clearer image of the impact of galaxy clusters and the exact processes that trigger the death of star formation and galaxy demise.