Stars 'forming 100 times faster'

Rapid star-forming galaxy MS1358arc – as seen 12.5 billion years ago

Stars, similar to the sun, are being "born" at a rate much faster than first thought, new research has revealed.

Durham university experts have discovered infant galaxies create up to 50 stars stars a year - 100 times faster than previously predicted.

Astronomers looked back 12.5 billion years to study one of the most distant galaxies known, MS1358arc.

Using the "gravitational lensing" technique scientists were able to observe rapid bursts of star formation.

The Durham researchers say the galaxy, which measures 6,000 light years across, also has all the characteristics allowing it to eventually evolve into a galaxy such as our Milky Way, giving an insight into how our sun and galaxy formed.

'Runaway effect'

They based their findings on observations from the Gemini North telescope, based in Hawaii, and NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes.

The research appears in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Lead author Dr Mark Swinbank, in the Institute for Computational Cosmology, at Durham University, said: "The runaway effect in this galaxy suggests it is growing much faster than expected.

"Given the size of the star forming regions, we would expect it to be forming stars at the rate of about one sun per year, but it seems to be much more active than that."

The researchers say most of the observed stars eventually exploded as supernovae, spewing debris back into space where it formed into new stars.

Dr Swinbank added: "In this respect these stars are the seeds of future star formation in the Universe."