NASA spots new galaxies, young stars

Though billions of years old, the universe still produces compact galaxies brimming with baby stars, astronomers said on Tuesday. Scientists...

Though billions of years old, the universe still produces compact galaxies brimming with baby stars, astronomers said on Tuesday. Scientists, using a NASA telescope, have discovered about three dozen young galaxies in the cosmic neighborhood that could help unravel forces behind the earliest star systems.

‘‘This is almost like looking out the window and seeing a dinosaur walk by,’’ said Tim Heckman, an astronomer specialising in galaxy evolution at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. ‘‘We thought this type of galaxy had gone extinct, but in fact newborn galaxies are alive and well in the universe,’’ he added.

Astronomers believe the universe unfolded 13.7 billion years ago after the theoretical Big Bang, a massive explosion of super dense matter. As the expanding universe cooled, it absorbed hydrogen and helium. These elements collapsed under gravity to create the first stars and galaxies.

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NASA launched its $100 million Galaxy Evolution Explorer 20 months ago to look for newborn star systems in the distant, early cosmos. Also known as Galex the small orbital telescope is equipped with optical systems sensitive to ultraviolet light unleashed during star formation.

Galex’s first sweep has revealed 36 of the young galaxies ranging in age from 100 million to one billion years, said Chris Martin, the California Institute of Technology astronomer who led the search. By comparison, the Milky Way is believed to be 10 billion years old, while Earth’s sun and its solar system are about 4.5 billion years old.

The Galex team hopes the galactic infants have similar composition and structure as ancient and unseen distant siblings. Scientists said the Hubble Telescope must be repaired before a comparison can be made between earliest galaxies and latest discoveries.

According to Alice Shapley, an astronomer at Berkeley, scientists want to resolve the range of star ages, their masses and the rate of star birth. The findings could help explain whether star systems of this type merged over the ages to form larger galaxies such as the Milky Way. Using Galex, astronomers can detect only compact ill-formed ‘‘fuzzy blobs’’ with the bright, tell-tale ultraviolet emissions of explosive star birth. They must leave to their imaginations what it might be like to live in such a star system. — NYT

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