Galaxy Zoo Talk

Blue puffs?

  • OzRamos by OzRamos

    I see these blue puffs every so often in ellipticals (and sometimes on the outskirts of big spirals). What are they? Are they just actively producing stars?

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to OzRamos's comment.

    I'm not sure whether you are referring, in general, to only Illustris sims (like this one), or ellipticals in DECaLS and/or SDSS ...

    For Illustris sims, the blue puffs are star-forming regions; they look rather different from the star-forming regions you see in DECaLS or SDSS images because of the way the simulation works (more details in this GZ blog post, and the links in it to the main Illustris webpage).

    Hope this helps, and happy hunting! 😃

    Posted