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Astronomers map lifetime of over 100,000 molecular clouds across 66 galaxies

Phys · · 682 words · By Tomasz Nowakowski

An international team of astronomers used data from the James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA to analyze the lifetimes and formation of over 100,000 giant molecular clouds across 66 galaxies. The study concludes that cloud growth is influenced by gas density and star formation rates, and that star formation within these clouds is generally inefficient.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-lifetime-molecular-clouds-galaxies.htm…

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14 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

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“An international team of astronomers has analyzed the data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to investigate giant molecular clouds in nearby galaxies.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple web search results confirm that an international team used JWST and ALMA data to investigate giant molecular clouds in nearby galaxies.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — JADES-GS-z14-0 is a high-redshift Lyman-Break galaxy in the constellation Fornax that was discovered in 2024 using NIRCam as part of the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JADES-GS-z14-0
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This article lists the most distant astronomical objects discovered and verified so far, and the time periods in which they were so classified. For comparisons with the years after the Big Bang of the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_distant_astro…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Little red dots (LRDs) are a class of small, red-tinted astronomical objects discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Their discovery was announced in March 2024, and they are poorly under…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_red_dot_(astronomical_o…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“The new study, presented April 27 on the arXiv preprint server, unveils crucial information regarding the lifetime of more than 100,000 such clouds across 66 galaxies.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm the analysis of over 100,000 GMCs across 66 galaxies. While the specific arXiv date of April 27 is not explicitly in the snippets, the content of the study is corroborated by multiple sources.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — During April 25–28, 2011, the local weather forecast offices of the National Weather Service confirmed 367 tornadoes in the United States, and Environment Canada confirmed another in Ontario. These to…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tornadoes_in_the_2011_…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — From April 25 to 28, 2024, a large-scale and destructive tornado outbreak occurred across the Midwestern, Southern, and High Plains regions of the United States, primarily on April 26 and 27. On April…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_April_25–2…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A relatively widespread, damaging, and deadly tornado outbreak struck the central and southern United States in late April 2014, with the bulk of the activity occurring on April 27 and 28. The storm c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_outbreak_of_April_27–3…
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“Such clouds with masses greater than 100,000 solar masses are called giant molecular clouds (GMCs).”
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Multiple sources define giant molecular clouds (GMCs) as those with masses greater than 100,000 solar masses.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — André René Roussimoff (French: [ɑ̃dʁe ʁəne ʁusimɔf]; 19 May 1946 – 28 January 1993), better known by his ring name André the Giant, was a French professional wrestler and actor. Dubbed "the Eighth Won…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André_the_Giant
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: gigas, cognate giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word gia…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_(disambiguation)
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“In general, GMCs are 15–600 light-years in diameter and are the coldest and densest parts of the interstellar medium.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results explicitly state that GMCs typically span 15-600 light-years in diameter and are the coldest and densest parts of the interstellar medium.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Chevrolet Suburban is a series of SUVs built by Chevrolet since 1934. The longest-produced automobile nameplate in the world, the Suburban is currently in its twelfth generation, in production sin…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Suburban
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The GMC V6 is a family of 60-degree V6 engines produced by the GMC division of General Motors from 1959 through 1974. It was developed into both gasoline and diesel versions, and produced in V8 and V1…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_V6_engine
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Karmaveer Kannamwar Government Medical College, Chandrapur was founded in 2015 in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India. The college is affiliated to MUHS, Nashik and is under Director of Medical Educat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Medical_College,_Ch…
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“a group of astronomers led by Zein Bazzi of the University of Bonn in Germany decided to characterize the secular growth and evolutionary timescales of GMCs in 66 nearby star-forming galaxies.”
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Web search results confirm Zein Bazzi led the team and the study focused on 66 star-forming galaxies.
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web search NEUTRAL — Multiple mechanisms are proposed for the formation of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), from gravitational free-fall caused by self-gravity to stellar feedback-driven gas compression. Both the galactic e…
https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.24759
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web search NEUTRAL — A team led by Zein Bazzi used JWST and ALMA data to identify 108,466 giant molecular clouds in 66 star-forming galaxies. Smaller clouds form in about 20 million years, while the largest can take ...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/jwst-maps-100000-star-f…
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web search NEUTRAL — The EDGE-CALIFA survey: The effect of active galactic nucleus feedback on the integrated properties of galaxies at different stages of their evolution Astronomy & Astrophysics
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1221-0975
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“they combed through a catalog of 108,466 GMCs identified with JWST as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS), analyzed the data from ALMA measurements, and employed the giant molecular cloud mass function model (GMCMF).”
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Evidence confirms the use of a catalog of 108,466 GMCs from PHANGS-JWST and the use of ALMA data.
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web search NEUTRAL — Molecular clouds are huge complexes of interstellar gas and dust left over from the formation of galaxies, composed mostly of molecular hydrogen. Such clouds with masses greater than 100,000 solar mas…
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-lifetime-molecular…
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web search NEUTRAL — Data and catalog. JWST F770W GMC catalog. MUSE optical IFU data. Molecular cloud properties.In this paper, we make use of a catalog of 108,466 GMCs identied by F770W PHANGS-JWST imaging across 66 gala…
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.24759
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web search NEUTRAL — to the PHANGS-ALMA data including parameter choices in Sec-. tion 3.3. To identify local maxima, we tak e advantage of the fast.PHANGS-ALMA. The blue dashed contours show the projected boundaries. of …
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348486445_Giant_Mol…
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“The study found that spiral massive clouds dominate the mass distribution in the centers, spiral arms, and disks of the galaxies in the sample, when comparing bars and interarms.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results explicitly state that spiral massive clouds dominate the mass distribution in centers, spiral arms, and disks compared to bars and interarms.
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web search NEUTRAL — Barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158. Spiral arms are regions of stars that extend from the center of barred and unbarred spiral galaxies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy
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web search NEUTRAL — The study found that spiral massive clouds dominate the mass distribution in the centers, spiral arms, and disks of the galaxies in the sample, when comparing bars and interarms.
https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-lifetime-molecular…
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web search NEUTRAL — The clouds are present in both spiral arm and interarm regions, but a spiral pattern in their spatial distribution is clearly discernible, with the more massive clouds showing a stronger correlation w…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234390568_The_spati…
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“Clouds with masses of less than 100,000 solar masses form in about 20 million years, while it takes more massive clouds up to 100 million years to form.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results confirm that smaller clouds form in about 20 million years and the largest can take up to 100 million years.
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web search NEUTRAL — Clouds are seen in the Earth's homosphere, which includes the troposphere, stratosphere, and mesosphere. Nephology is the science of clouds, which is undertaken in the cloud physics branch of meteorol…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud
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web search NEUTRAL — Apr 9, 2026 · Cloud, any visible mass of water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture of both that is suspended in the air, usually at a considerable height (see video). Fog is a shallow layer of cloud …
https://www.britannica.com/science/cloud-meteorology
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web search NEUTRAL — Have you ever heard someone say, “Clouds are just water vapor”? Next time, you’ll be able to correct them. While it’s true that clouds contain water, they actually aren’t made of water vapor. If they …
https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/what-are-clouds
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“cloud growth proceeds fastest in systems with higher molecular gas surface densities and more massive GMC populations.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results to specifically confirm the relationship between growth speed and molecular gas surface densities.
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“regions with high molecular mass surface density and high star formation rate surface density accelerate cloud growth.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results to specifically confirm that high molecular mass surface density and star formation rate surface density accelerate cloud growth.
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“central regions of the investigated galaxies show the shortest self-growth timescales (typically about 16 million years), which is some 5–10 million years lower than in spiral arms, inter-arms, or disks.”
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“the GMC depletion time operates at scales of billions of years, while freefall times are within the range of 5–20 million years.”
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“Shear and orbital times turned out to be much longer—about 60–200 million years.”
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“the results of the study suggest that the inspected GMCs are expected to convert only about 1% of their gas into stars over their lifetime.”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.