image: The color and shape of a galaxy is largely controlled by gas flowing through an extended halo around it. Left panel: A galaxy with vigorous star formation can drive out its gas and cease to form stars. Right panel: A spiral galaxy like our Milky Way recycles gas through the halo. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Nov. 18, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by J. Tumlinson at Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., and colleagues, was titled, “The Large, Oxygen-Rich Halos of Star-Forming Galaxies Are a Major Reservoir of Galactic Metals.” view more
Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/STScI/Ann Feild