Speed Found to be Key to Galaxy Formation

QuantumCrypto writes "The All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey (AEGIS), a collaborative effort involving nearly 100 scientists in half a dozen countries, revealed a new principle in the formation of all galaxies, from disk-like spirals, cloud-like ellipticals, and just irregulars. In essence the morphology of the galaxies depends on total mass involved and the internal speed it generates. 'By defining a new speed indicator, their analysis has managed to make sense out of very chaotic-looking objects,' said Sandra Faber, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz."

Of quantum fluxuations and galactic seeds

[ArcSecond]

According to Faber, the relation described in this study may reflect processes that began in the first fraction of a nanosecond after the Big Bang. "Galaxies began life as quantum fluctuations--tiny density fluctuations that created the seeds for the later coagulation of structure in the universe. When gravity took over, those seeds made galaxies, and we think that process is reflected in the Tully-Fisher relation," she said.

I found this part really interesting. I know it is something pointed to already by fluctuations in the Cosmic Background Radiation, but the though that local variations at the smallest scales determined the structure of galaxies is really something to think on.