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'Superheated' stellar factory in the early cosmos is producing stars 180 times faster than the Milky Way | Space Skip to main content Don't miss these Galaxies Our universe's oldest galaxies were hot messes Stars The first stars may not have been as uniformly massive as astronomers thought Astronomy One of the earliest galaxies in the universe was rich in oxygen. Could it mean life evolved earlier than we thought? Astronomy Astronomers trace massive cosmic explosion back 12 billion years. 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Here's how The galaxy Y1, the circled red grain, as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Diego (Instituto de Física de Cantabria, Spain), J. D’Silva (U. Western Australia), A. Koekemoer (STScI), J. Summers & R. Windhorst (ASU), and H. Yan (U. Missouri)) Astronomers have discovered a superheated "star factory" that existed just 800 million years after the Big Bang. The star factory, a galaxy known as Y1, is birthing stars at a rate 180 times faster than the Milky Way does. The discovery of such a previously unknown extreme region of starbirth could help scientists explain how galaxies grew so quickly in the early universe.The team discovered the nature of Y1 by first measuring the temperature of its superheated cosmic dust. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the researchers were able to analyze the light emitted by the primordial galaxy, which has been travelling to Earth for 13 billion years.Scientists say this revealed a previously hidden era in cosmic history. "We're looking back to a time when the universe was making stars much faster than today," team leader Tom Bakx, of Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, said in a statement. "Previous observations revealed the presence of dust in this galaxy, making it the furthest away we've ever directly detected light from glowing dust. That made us suspect that this galaxy might be running a different, superheated kind of star factory. To be sure, we set out to measure its temperature." You may like One of the earliest galaxies in the universe was rich in oxygen. Could it mean life evolved earlier than we thought? Our universe's oldest galaxies were hot messes The first stars may not have been as uniformly massive as astronomers thought The research is part of a continuing effort by astronomers to understand the conditions under which the first generation of stars, known as "Population III (POP III)" stars, formed. These conditions are thought to be very different from the conditions under which modern, or POP I, stars like the sun were born.Touring star factoriesStars are forged in vast complexes of dense gas and dust such as the Orion Nebula and the Carina Nebula in the local universe. These nebulas are bright because their star-forming gas and dust is illuminated by light from young massive stars within them. This illumination covers both light visible to the human eye and longer wavelengths of light in the infrared and radio regions of the electromagnetic spectrum."At wavelengths like this, the galaxy is lit up by billowing clouds of glowing dust grains," Bakx said. "When we saw how bright this galaxy shines compared to other wavelengths, we immediately knew we were looking at something truly special."This revelation was possible thanks to the sensitivity of ALMA, composed of 66 radio antennas located in the Atacama desert region of Northern Chile, and its Band 9 instrument which is tuned to a specific wavelength of light. ALMA allowed Bakx and colleagues to determine that the dust of Y1 was glowing with a temperature of around minus 356 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 180 degrees Celsius).Get the Space.com NewsletterBreaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors"The temperature is certainly chilly compared to household dust on Earth, but it's much warmer than any other comparable galaxy we’ve seen," team member Yoichi Tamura of Nagoya University in Japan said. "This confirmed that it really is an extreme star factory. Even though it's the first time we've seen a galaxy like this, we think that there could be many more out there. Star factories like Y1 could have been common in the early universe."While Y1 is producing stars and growing at an incredible rate of around 180 solar masses every year as the team observed it 13 billion years ago, this starburst period wouldn't have lasted too long, at least not in cosmological terms. Scientists do theorize, however, that these periods of intense star formation or starburst may have been common in early galaxies, but are currently hidden from our view."We don't know how common such phases might be in the early universe, so in the future we want to look for more examples of star factories like this," Bakx said. "We also plan to use the high-resolution capabilities of ALMA to take a closer look at how this galaxy works." You may like One of the earliest galaxies in the universe was rich in oxygen. Could it mean life evolved earlier than we thought? Our universe's oldest galaxies were hot messes The first stars may not have been as uniformly massive as astronomers thought Galaxy Y1 and its surroundings as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCAM (blue and green) and by ALMA (red). (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA (JWST), T. Bakx/ALMA (ESO/NRAO/NAOJ))Further investigation of Y1 may help answer a lingering puzzle about galaxies in the early universe. Previous studies have shown that primordial galaxies are filled with more dust than their older population of stars can create. The relatively high temperature of Y1 could pose an answer to this puzzle, suggesting that the high volume of dust is actually an illusion."Galaxies in the early universe seem to be too young for the amount of dust they contain. That's strange, because they don't have enough old stars, around which most dust grains are created," team member Laura Sommovigo, of the Flatiron Institute and Columbia University said. "But a small amount of warm dust can be just as bright as large amounts of cool dust, and that's exactly what we’re seeing in Y1."Even though these galaxies are still young and don't yet contain much heavy elements or dust, what they do have is both hot and bright."The team's research was published on Wednesday (Nov.12) in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Robert LeaSenior WriterRobert Lea is a science journalist in the U.K. whose articles have been published in Physics World, New Scientist, Astronomy Magazine, All About Space, Newsweek and ZME Science. He also writes about science communication for Elsevier and the European Journal of Physics. Rob holds a bachelor of science degree in physics and astronomy from the U.K.’s Open University. Follow him on Twitter @sciencef1rst. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Logout Read more One of the earliest galaxies in the universe was rich in oxygen. Could it mean life evolved earlier than we thought? Our universe's oldest galaxies were hot messes The first stars may not have been as uniformly massive as astronomers thought Zoom through the Milky Way's stellar nurseries in this super-detailed 3D map (video) James Webb Space Telescope peers deep into the heart of star formation in our Milky Way galaxy Astronomers trace massive cosmic explosion back 12 billion years. 'This is the most distant event where we can directly see light escaping from around stars' Latest in Astronomy Mars spacecraft images pinpoint comet 3I/ATLAS's path with 10x higher accuracy. 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'Superheated' stellar factory in the early cosmos is producing stars 180 times faster than the Milky Way