Ancient galaxy Y1 discovered, forming 180 stars per year

An international team of astronomers has discovered the ancient galaxy Y1, which was forming stars at a record pace — around 180 new stars per year. The observations were carried out using the ALMA radio telescope, and the results were published in the journal *Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society*.

Light from galaxy Y1 reached Earth more than 13 billion years later, indicating that the object existed less than one billion years after the Big Bang. According to the study, Y1 contains “super-heated” cosmic dust, which allowed scientists to measure its temperature and confirm the high rate of star formation.

Lead author Tom Bacs noted that the observations take scientists back to an era when the Universe was forming stars much faster than it does now. Astronomer Yoichi Tamura added that such “star factories” may have been common in the early Universe.

According to the researchers, the star-formation rate in Y1 significantly exceeds the current rate in our own Milky Way galaxy, where roughly one new star is formed per year. The discovery may help answer how quickly galaxies grew in the early Universe. The team plans to search for similar objects and use ALMA’s capabilities to study Y1 in more detail.