Star Factories In Distant SMM J2135-0102 Viewed Up Close
Monday, March 22, 2010 - 11:07
in Astronomy & Space
The combination of a natural gravitational lens and a sophisticated telescope array has given astronomers the clearest view to date of the "star factories" in SMM J2135-0102, a galaxy over 10 billion light-years from Earth. The distant galaxy, they say, is making new stars 250 times faster than our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Astronomers also pinpointed four discrete star-forming regions within the galaxy, each over 100 times brighter than locations where stars form in our Galaxy. This is the first time that astronomers have been able to study properties of individual star-forming regions within a galaxy so far from Earth. read more