Astronomers have spotted thousands of young stars huddled around the center of an ancient galaxy, all of which formed nearly simultaneously 4 million years ago. This observation marks the first time such synchronized star formation has been spotted in an old galaxy, and challenges the idea that star formation declines as galaxies age.
The newfound star clusters skirt the heart of NGC 1386, a spiral galaxy swirling roughly 53 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus. Researchers led by Almudena Prieto of Spain's Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias identified 61 groups of young stars, which trace the 1 kiloparsec-wide blue ring seen in the image above, and found all of them sported similar masses, ages and sizes despite being spatially isolated.
