Inferring the star formation rates of galaxies
Monday, November 23, 2015 - 08:00
in Astronomy & Space
Our Milky Way galaxy produces on average a few new stars every year across the entire system. Massive young stars emit large amounts of ultraviolet radiation which heats the local dust, and so the star formation process results in infrared emission. The IRAS satellite, launched by NASA in 1983 for a ten-month mission, discovered that some galaxies in the universe are ultra-luminous, radiating a hundred or even a thousand times as much light, mostly in the infrared, as does the Milky Way.