Why do some starburst galaxies mysteriously shut down? New study provides clues

A galaxy dying is not a gentle thing. Its star-making factories, once churning out millions of suns, grind to a halt. Rather than a slow fade, it's a sudden, striking shutdown, a phenomenon astronomers call rapid quenching. Such phenomena are the mysteries of what we call post-starburst galaxies , which present some of the most compelling, yet often overlooked, stories unfolding across the universe . For astronomers, such systems are like cosmic crime scenes. …