Star Formation Rate Since the Big Bang

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...

Going, Going, Almost Gone

These three pictures illustrate how a nearby irregular galaxy brimming with star birth would appear at successively greater distances from Earth. The picture at lower left shows the galaxy, I Zw 18, as it actually appears in a snapshot taken by the Hubble telescope's Wide Field...

Galaxy I Zwicky 18

Nearby: As it actually appears at ~30Mly

Simulated Image of I Zw 18 at ~300Mly

Intermediate distance: As it would appear at ~300Mly

Simulated Image of I Zw 18 at ~3Gly

Large distance: As it would appear at ~3Gly

Rapid Star Formation in the Early Universe

This artist's concept of star formation in the early universe shows a field of dazzling proto-galaxies brightening as white-hot knots of stars are born within them. According to recent results from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the earliest stars may have formed in a torrential...

Flying Through the Hubble Deep Field

This animation takes us on a journey through one of the Hubble Space Telescope's most remarkable images. Taken in late 1995, the Hubble Deep Field gave astronomers a glimpse down a narrow corridor from the present universe to the edge of Hubble's sensory range in the early...

Space Science Update: Stellar 'Fireworks Finale' Came First in the Young Universe (Webcast)