Astronomers discover that galaxies are either asleep or awake
Tuesday, June 21, 2011 - 10:30
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers have probed into the distant universe and discovered that galaxies display one of two distinct behaviors: they are either awake or asleep, actively forming stars or are not forming any new stars at all. A new survey shows that even very young galaxies as far away as 12 billion light years display one of these two states, meaning galaxies have behaved this way for more than 85 percent of the history of the universe.