Astronomers may have stumbled upon galaxy's birth

17 Jun 2002

North American astronomers, including a Boulder researcher, believe they have stumbled upon the birth of a galaxy. The first-of-its-kind observation offers new perspective on the origins of the Milky Way and the organization of the universe.

The infant galaxy, the brightest ever observed, lies roughly 10 billion light-years from Earth, said co-discoverer Erica Ellington of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ellington, with astronomers from the University of Arizona and University of Toronto, found the new galaxy-- named MS1512.cB58z-- by accident in December while using a 3.6-meter optical telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

The results will be published in the May issue of Astronomical Journal. The researchers hope to secure observation time on the Hubble Space Telescope to examine the galaxy without peering through the Earth's murky atmosphere.

Some astronomers believe that all galaxies formed around the same time in one colossal burst soon after the Big Bang. Others contend the process has been more gradual. The discovery seems to support the second theory.

The telescope image shows bursts of massive, bright stars known as "O" stars that survive less than 10 million years. The brightness, together with the distance of the object, leads astronomers to conclude the galaxy is very young-- perhaps the youngest ever recorded. The brightness of MS1512.cB58z, which is 100 times brighter than the Milky Way, indicates that 1,000 stars per year are being formed within it.