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Star formation in a galactic wind

Abstract

Malin and Carter1 have discovered giant shells of faint optical emission around several normal elliptical galaxies. We suggest here that these shells are composed of stars formed in shocked galactic wind material. Shocks might arise from relatively gradual increases in wind velocity, or from the collision of the wind with a tenuous intergalactic medium, and need not imply that cataclysmic events have occurred within the galaxy.

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Fabian, A., Nulsen, P. & Stewart, G. Star formation in a galactic wind. Nature 287, 613–614 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/287613a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/287613a0

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