Astronomers have recently been using a multitude of telescopes to look deep into the Universe at a strange starburst galaxy, which appears to be creating around 4000 stars per year. This compares with our own Milky Way galaxy which only produces about 10 stars per year.
They used the Hubble (optical) and Spitzer Space Telescopes (infrared), the Japanese Subaru Telescope (optical) , the James Clerk Maxwell (sub-millimetre) and the Keck Telescopes (optical), all on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, along with the Very Large Array (radio) in New Mexico.
The green and red splotch in this image is the most active star-making galaxy in the very distant Universe, the "Baby Boom" galaxy.
In this multi-wavelength image, the colour red shows where loads of new stars are forming and where warm dust heated by the stars is giving off infrared light.
Green (visible-light wavelengths) denotes gas, while blue (also visible light) shows galaxies in the foreground that are not producing nearly as many stars. Yellow/orange (near-infrared light) indicates starlight from the outer portion of Baby Boom. The red blob to the left is another foreground galaxy that is not producing a lot of stars. This composite contains data from Spitzer and Japan's Subaru Telescope in Hawaii.
Theory has always suggested that galaxies slowly build over time, and not in one big burst as this galaxy, nicknamed "Baby Boom" appears to be doing. The galaxy was formed around 12.3 billion years ago, at a time when the Universe was only just over 1 billion years old.
This has led researchers to wonder whether massive galaxies form very early in the Universe like the Baby Boom galaxy, or whether this is an exception.
