Cosmic Evolution of Age, Abundance of Heavy Elements and Abundance of Alpha-Elements (IMAGE)

National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Cosmic Evolution of Age, Abundance of Heavy Elements and Abundance of Alpha-Elements

Caption

Gray data points show the results from previous works by other studies. The colored strip in the left panel is a prediction of their evolution if such massive elliptical galaxies formed 10 to 11 billion years ago (redshift of about 2.3) and evolved without forming new stars to the present universe (redshift of zero). The prediction agrees with the observed trend very well. The middle and left panels clearly show that chemical composition of massive elliptical galaxies does not evolve over cosmic time.

Credit

ETH Zurich/NAOJ

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