For today’s astrobite, we will be discussing some of the highest-resolution simulations of isolated galaxies performed to date. Not only are these simulations high resolution, but they also include prescriptions to model several physical effects that previous galaxy evolution simulations have mostly ignored.
Astronomers who specialize in galaxies and galaxy evolution have started to weigh in on habitability from a completely new perspective. Instead of trying to determine the zone around a star where an orbiting planet could sustain life, they are modeling the zones within the galaxy where planets that harbor complex life would be most likely to form. They dub this zone the Galactic Habitable Zone, or GHZ.
Take a look at three different papers written by graduate students on distant galaxies, waves on the Sun, and mapping the Milky Way.
In this paper, Dobbs, Burkert & Pringle suggest that most molecular clouds are not gravitationally bound, as is often assumed. They present simulations in which stellar feedback and collisions between clouds play a prominent role.