<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Astrodelugeologist</i>
<br />Why then do we not observe escaping stars in elliptical galaxies?
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I haven't given ellipticals much thought. They are relatively rare as galaxies go. But just off the top of my head, the mainstream idea that they result from recent collisions seems to work. It simply means their shapes are temporary, and will settle back into normal spiral configurations after a few revolutions. It might also explain why the star velocities do not drop off as in a normal galaxy (two different rotation curves are merged) and why they are relatively luminous for their size (extra star density combined with induced rapid star formation). -|Tom|-
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