Scientists have known for quite some time that if a galaxy had to make do with the amount of gas it was formed with that it would use it all up forming stars and leaving nothing left to help sustain the stars, astronomers have predicted that galaxies are able to pull in resources from elsewhere in order to sustain themselves but were never able to prove this, until now, according to Space. 

"It's been a problem," astrophysicist Crystal Martin told TGDaily about trying to find out how galaxies refuel themselves. "Galaxies must have a mechanism for acquiring more gas."

A team of astronomers are using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile have come up with a new way study how galaxies refuel themselves. The astronomers are allowing a quasar, an extremely luminous center of a galaxy, in the background to light up the galaxy that they are trying to study, thus illuminating the galaxy in the foreground and allowing scientists to observe it's motion and composition, according to Space.

"The cold gas - mostly hydrogen atoms - is very tenuous, so difficult to detect," lead author Nicolas Bouche told Space.

The presence of gas had been observed around galaxies in the past. Bouche's team was able to show that the gasses were not being expelled from the galaxy; instead they were being drawn in at immense speeds. Once drawn into the galaxy the gas will reach the speed that the galaxy is spinning at and will slowly make its way from out in the halo of the galaxy toward the center. Once reaching the center the gas will become part of a new star, according to Science.

The new methods used in this study could open the door to more detailed studies of the universe although it will only have limited use thanks to the rarity of the situation the astronomers have been observing.

"Unfortunately, the number of such 'apparent pairs,' where a background quasar happens to be situated a short distance on the sky from the galaxy, is a rare event," Bouche said.