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Stellar ‘Fireworks Finale’ Came First in the Young Universe

Stellar 'Fireworks Finale' Came First in the Young Universe
This is an artist's impression of how the very early universe (less than 1 billion years old) might have looked when it went through a voracious onset of star formation, converting primordial hydrogen into myriad stars at an unprecedented rate. Back then the sky would have looked markedly different from the sea of quiescent galaxies around us today. The sky is ablaze with primeval starburst galaxies; giant elliptical and spiral galaxies have yet to form. Within the starburst galaxies, bright knots of hot blue stars come and go like bursting fireworks shells. Regions of new starbirth glow intensely red under a torrent of ultraviolet radiation. The most massive stars self-detonate as supernovas, which explode across the sky like a string of firecrackers. A foreground starburst galaxy at lower right is sculpted with hot bubbles from supernova explosions and torrential stellar winds. Unlike today there is very little dust in these galaxies, because the heavier elements have not yet been cooked up through nucleosynthesis in stars. Recent analysis of Hubble Space Telescope deep sky images supports the theory that the first stars in the universe appeared in an abrupt eruption of star formation, rather than at a gradual pace.

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
    Technical facts about the news release associated with this image: Principal Astronomers: K. Lanzetta (SUNY Stony Brook), H.-W. Chen (Carnigie Observatories), A. Fernandez-Soto (Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy), S. Pascarelle and N. Yahata (SUNY Stony Brook) About the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) R.A.: 12h 36m 49.5s Dec.: +62° 12' 58.0" Constellation: Ursa Major Exposure Dates: December 1995 to present Filters: F110W, F160W, F222M, F300W, F450W, F606W, F814W About the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S) R.A:. 22h 32m 56.0s Dec.: -60° 33' 00.0" Constellation: Tucana Exposure Dates: December 1995 to present Filters: F110W, F160W, F222M, F300W, F450W, F606W, F814W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Early Universe
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Star Formation, Early Universe
  • Release Date
    January 8, 2002
  • Science Release
    Stellar ‘Fireworks Finale’ Came First in the Young Universe
    Read the release
  • Credit
    Painting Credit: Adolf Schaller for STScI

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Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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