Figure 1
This artist's conception illustrates the decline in our universe's
"birth-rate" over time. When the universe was young, massive galaxies
were forming regularly, like baby bees in a bustling hive. In time, the
universe bore fewer and fewer "offspring," and newborn galaxies (white
circles) matured into older ones more like our own Milky Way (spirals).
Previously, astronomers thought that the universe had ceased to give rise
to massive, young galaxies, but findings from NASA's Galaxy Evolution
Explorer suggest that may not be the case. Surveying thousands of nearby
galaxies with its highly sensitive ultraviolet eyes, the telescope spotted
three dozen that greatly resemble youthful galaxies from billions of
years ago. In this illustration, those galaxies are represented as white
circles on the right, or "today" side of the timeline.
The discovery not only suggests that our universe may still be alive with
youth, but also offers astronomers their first close-up look at what
appear to be baby galaxies. Prior to the new result, astronomers had to
peer about 11 billion light-years into the distant universe to see
newborn galaxies. The newfound galaxies are only about 2 to 4 billion
light-years away.