What will cause our galaxy to die?
Answers
Time to come to grips with our galactic mortality. Not as puny flesh beings, or as a speck of rock, or even the relatively unassuming ball of plasma we orbit.
Today we're going to ponder the lifespan of the galaxy we inhabit, the Milky Way. If we look at a galaxy as a collection of stars, some are like our Sun, and others aren't.
The Sun consumes fuel, converting hydrogen into helium through fusion. It's been around for 5 billion years, and will probably last for another 5 before it bloats up as a red giant, sheds its outer layers and compresses down into a white dwarf, cooling down until it's the background temperature of the universe.
So if a galaxy like the Milky Way is just a collection of stars, isn't that it? Doesn't a galaxy die when its last star dies?
But you already know a galaxy is more than just stars. There's also vast clouds of gas and dust. Some of it is primordial hydrogen left from the formation of the universe 13.8 billion years ago.
All stars in the Milky Way formed from this primordial hydrogen. It and other similar sized galaxies produce 7 bouncing baby stars every year. Sadly, ours has used up 90% of its hydrogen, and star formation will slow down until it both figuratively, and literally, runs out of gas.
The Milky Way will die after it's used all its star-forming gas, when all of the stars we have, and all those stars yet to be born have died. Stars like our Sun can only last for 10 billion years or so, but the smallest, coolest red dwarfs can last for a few trillion years.
HOPE IT HELPS YOU!
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The process repeats: Gravity condenses gas into galaxies and stars, stars blow up and kick the gas out, gravity cycles the gas back in and makes new stars. ... Without gas, it can't form new stars; the old stars live out their lives and die, and eventually the galaxy dies too.