The most massive galaxies in the universe are linked to violent star-forming activity in its early period, UPI cited research published in a British journal as suggesting. An international team of astronomers searching for signs of mysterious "dark matter" in early galaxies said their findings confirm the link. Studying galaxies at great distances allows astronomers to look deep into the universe's past. Scientists say they believe galaxies are surrounded by "haloes" of dark matter, which has never been directly detected but can be inferred by its gravitational influence on galaxy clusters. Using a computer model describing how galaxies and their haloes should evolve, the team determined that frenetic "starbursting" galaxies develop into the enormous elliptical galaxies we see more closely to us. "This is the first time that we've been able to show this clear link between the most energetic starbursting galaxies in the early universe, and the most massive galaxies in the present day," research leader Ryan Hickox of Dartmouth College told the BBC. These energetic bouts of star formation appear to only last about 100 million years before coming to an abrupt halt, the researchers said. The new finding support theories that the burst of star formation feeds a massive black hole at the center of a galaxy, which then releases powerful blasts of energy that disperse the clouds of cosmic gas that otherwise would condense into even more stars. The research was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
