This is a Hubble Space Telescope observation showing the red ‘arc’ of the rapid star forming galaxy MS1358arc — seen as it was 12.5 billion years ago. The galaxy is magnified by a factor of 10 by the younger foreground galaxies.
Credit: Dr Johan Richard, Durham University.

The Universe’s infant galaxies enjoyed rapid growth spurts forming stars like our sun at a rate of up to 50 stars a year, according to scientists at Durham University.

 

The findings show that "stellar nurseries" within the first galaxies gave birth to at a much more rapid rate than previously expected, the researchers from Durham’s Institute for Computational Cosmology revealed.

The research looked back 12.5 billion years to one of the most distant known galaxies, about one billion years after the Big Bang.

Using a technique called gravitational lensing – where distant galaxies are magnified using the gravity of a nearby galaxy cluster – the scientists observed the rapid bursts of star formation in the galaxy called MS1358arc.

Within the star-forming regions, new stars were being created at a rate of about 50 stars per year – around 100 times faster than had been previously thought.

The researchers, who say their work represents the most detailed study of a galaxy at such a young age, believe the observed galaxy is typical of others in the early Universe.

They say the galaxy, which measures 6,000 across, also has all the characteristics that would allow it to eventually evolve into a galaxy such as our Milky Way, giving an insight into how our sun and galaxy formed.

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