Large galaxies stopped growing seven billion years ago
Monday, April 18, 2011 - 14:31
in Astronomy & Space
Galaxies are thought to develop by the gravitational attraction between and merger of smaller 'sub-galaxies', a process that standard cosmological ideas suggest should be ongoing. But new data directly challenges this idea, suggesting that the growth of some of the most massive objects stopped 7 billion years ago when the universe was half its present age.