Watching a galaxy die
Astronomers have for the first time witnessed a distant galaxy in the process of dying, reports CBSNews.com. Located about 9 billion light-years from Earth, galaxy ID2299 is spewing out vast amounts of the cold gas it needs to forge new stars. Images of these death throes were captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of telescopes in Chile. ID2299 is ejecting 10,000 suns’ worth of gas every year; it’s also forming stars at a rate hundreds of times faster than the Milky Way, further depleting its gas supply. Relatively speaking, the galaxy is not long for this universe. It will likely stop producing stars within the next few tens of thousands of years, at which point it will be classified as dead. Curiously, the galaxy’s cause of death appears to be a result of its creation: ID2299 was formed when two galaxies violently collided and joined together. “Our study suggests that gas ejections can be produced by mergers,” says study co-author Emanuele Daddi. “This might lead us to revise our understanding of how galaxies ‘die.’”
get the treatment early. Under pressure from President Trump, the FDA approved blood plasma as a Covid treatment five months ago, despite a lack of evidence about its effectiveness. The new study, from Argentina, found that patients who received an infusion within three days of symptoms starting had a 48 percent lower risk of developing a severe case of Covid, compared with a control group who received a saline solution instead.
The plasma recipients were more vulnerable to serious sickness than the general population: They were all at least 65 years old, and half had pre-existing health conditions. Such speedy treatment may be difficult to deliver in hospitals, because many patients don’t seek medical help until their symptoms have worsened. Other trials have found that plasma does little to prevent death or speed up recovery in sicker patients. The University of Alberta’s Ilan Schwartz, who wasn’t involved in the research, tells The New York Times, “The study looks solid, but not necessarily practical in the real world.”