In Galaxy Star formation may jump from place to place inside a galaxy like a brushfire front, according to a team of astronomers from the UK, Australia and Spain. The team used the Hubble Space Telescope and other telescopes to study a galaxy called NGC 2903, which lies 25 million light-years away and is similar to our own galaxy. Other spots in the galaxy are clouds of ionized hydrogen gas where young stars are forming today. The two kinds of spots are far apart, meaning that star-forming activity is shifting from place to place.
Stars form when a giant cloud of cold hydrogen gas collapses in on itself.
Once it has burnt out an area, it has to move on to where there's more fuel or it will die out. The astronomers also found that a dense region of stars in the galaxy, called a bar, seems to funnel gas into the galaxy's center, fueling the birth of young stars. Most of the stars are old. That means there are some younger inhabitants as well. Research details are to be published in a forthcoming issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .