The Hubble Space Telescope of NASA Discovers a Window into the Early Universe
The universe is carved by stars, yet their formation is still a mystery to scientists.
Scientists looked to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a Milky Way satellite galaxy, to learn more about the frenzied “baby boom” of star creation that took place in the early history of the universe.
This close galaxy resembles galaxies discovered in the earlier cosmos, when heavy elements were less prevalent
since it has a simpler chemical makeup than the Milky Way. It can therefore act as a stand-in for the early universe.
The identical result was recently reached by two different research studies, the first using the Hubble Space Telescope
the second using the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory.
The separate teams used various methods to find young stars spiralling into the nucleus of the giant star cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud.
According to astrophysicists, this river-like motion of gas and stars is a powerful mechanism to support star formation.