Stars are also born outside the galaxies

2007/09/24 Rementeria Argote, Nagore - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Astrofisika
• Astronomia

The most widespread theory of the birth of stars says that they occur inside galaxies, in close relation to their evolution. Stars have been found outside the galaxies, but they have not cast doubt on the theory, since they have been considered to be expelled from the original galaxy for some special fact. Well, astronomers have made a discovery that has led them to think that stars can be created outside the galaxies: they have discovered a cloud in which the stars are supposedly born and is not within any galaxy.

The discovery has been achieved with the combination of two tools: Chandra X-ray Observatory and SOAR Telescope of Chile. Both devices have focused on the tail of the galaxy ESO 137-011 and combining photos with the two have found 29 regions of young stars. It seems that these stars are born there, because they are too young to be created within the galaxy.

Photo: Chandra X-ray Observatory (NASA/CXC/MSU/M. Sun et al.) and SOAR telescope (MSU/NOAO/UNC/CNPq-Brazil/M. Sun et al.)