Local Structure and How We Came to Be

当地结构和我们是如何形成的

• 批准号: 44454-2013
• 负责人: McCall, Marshall
• 金额: $ 1.53万
• 依托单位: York University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=633437
• 关键词: Local; Structure; How; Came

Our home galaxy the Milky Way and our orbiting neighbour Andromeda form the heart of a collection of galaxies about 3 million lights years across known as the Local Group. Until recently, it appeared that a relatively complete picture of our past could be gained by studying the Local Group in isolation. However, it is now known that the Group is merely a mass concentration in a highly flattened structure, known as the Local Sheet, which extends in all directions out to 20 million light years. After carefully mapping out how galaxies in the Sheet are organized, the applicant has discovered that the formation and evolution of the Local Group was integrally connected to this environment. The proposed research is aimed at acquiring a better understanding of what the Local Sheet represents, and how the Milky Way came to occupy its present rather special place within it. Besides continuing studies of the Local Sheet, the applicant will seek out and study analogues in the greater universe, both observationally and through simulations. In addition to learning about the nature and origin of the pool of matter in which we lie, insights will be gained into what processes delimited the mass of the Milky Way, how the Milky Way became a member of a binary, how the Milky Way and its neighbours started spinning, whether the structure in which we find ourselves is stable, and under what conditions that structure developed as the universe expanded. In the end, the research will yield a clearer picture of the uniqueness of our place in the universe and how we came to be.

我们的家乡银河系和我们的绕轨道运行的邻居仙女座星系构成了一个直径约 300 万光年的星系团的中心，被称为本星系群。直到最近，似乎可以通过孤立地研究本地群体来获得对我们过去的相对完整的了解。然而，现在我们知道，该集团只是一个高度扁平结构的质量集中体，被称为局域片，它向各个方向延伸到 2000 万光年。在仔细绘制了片中星系的组织方式后，申请人发现本星系群的形成和演化与这种环境有着紧密的联系。拟议的研究旨在更好地了解本地片代表什么，以及银河系如何在其中占据目前相当特殊的位置。除了继续研究局部表之外，申请人还将通过观察和模拟来寻找和研究更大宇宙中的类似物。除了了解我们所在的物质池的性质和起源之外，还将深入了解哪些过程界定了银河系的质量，银河系如何成为双星系统的一员，银河系及其邻居如何开始旋转，我们所处的结构是否稳定，以及随着宇宙膨胀该结构在什么条件下发展。最终，这项研究将更清楚地了解我们在宇宙中的独特地位以及我们是如何形成的。