It may look like disco lights after you’ve been partying too hard, but this collection of colours is actually a ‘star-making machine’ 12.3 billion light-years away. The Milky Way produces just 10 stars a year, this one puts out 4,000 (NASA press release).
“This galaxy is undergoing a major baby boom, producing most of its stars all at once,” says Peter Capak of NASA.
Although this level of star making had been seen in galaxies from when the universe was 1.9 billion years old, it has not before been seen in a galaxy of this youthfulness (it hails from a time the universe was 1.3 billion years old), says Capak.
“Before now, we had only seen galaxies form stars like this in the teenaged universe, but this galaxy is forming when the universe was only a child,” said Capak. “The question now is whether the majority of the very most massive galaxies form very early in the universe like the Baby Boom galaxy, or whether this is an exceptional case.”
NASA telescopes spot star “factory” – Reuters
An early record-breaker – Science News
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Subaru