This week: the story of astrophysicist Charity Woodrum. Charity is an extragalactic astronomer who studies the life and death of galaxies, why some galaxies burn bright and others dim and sputter out. And in the midst of an unthinkable grief in her personal life, she discovers something in the sky – a new kind of light that would guide her path forward. Special thanks to Megan Stielstra, Jad Abumrad, Michael Woodrum, Gina Vivona, and Clair Reilly-Roe.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu MillerProduced by - Jessica YungFact-checking by - Diane KellyRadiolab | Lateral Cuts:Our episode The Darkest Dark (https://radiolab.org/podcast/the-darkest-dark) could be of interest to those seeking the deepest unknowns. EPISODE CITATIONS:Music -Clair Reilly-Roe’s song “Sky Full of Ghosts” (https://zpr.io/JgauhRnj7qpX)Articles -A new documentary on Charity Woodrum’s story: Space, Hope and Charity (https://www.spacehopecharityfilm.com/)Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected] support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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The place I really want to start is, I wonder if you can tell me about all the different ways a galaxy can die. Okay.
Okay, so a galaxy can die or quench in a variety of different ways.
Wait, and I'm already going to stop you because that word quench. Yeah. Does that mean like galaxy dimming, galaxy dying?
Yeah, we call it death in kind of a way or a dimming of sorts. Yeah. Got it. So I would define it as any process that prevents star formation from happening. Okay. And for stars to form, you need cold, dense gas. You can think of cold, dense gas, mostly hydrogen, as the fuel for star formation.
Okay. And so ways that the galaxy quenches is when the stars can't get that fuel? Yeah, exactly. So, like, what makes that fuel not get there?
Well, for example, the supermassive black holes that exist in the center of every massive galaxy, those supermassive black holes can heat up that gas. Or the supermassive black holes can have these jets that'll actually expel the gas outside of the galaxy completely into the intergalactic space.
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