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Peter Crouch of galaxies

By Daniel Smith on Mar 22, 10 09:58 AM

peter-crouch.jpg

A huge, newly-discovered galaxy went through a "growth spurt" like a teenager and would now be the astronomical equivalent of the gangly footballer Peter Crouch, scientists say.

It created stars like our sun up to 100 times faster than the modern-day Milky Way, researchers led by Durham University reported.

Scientists could look back to how it appeared 10 billion years ago - "just" three billion years after the Big Bang - due to the length of time its light took to reach Earth.

The team found four discrete star-forming regions within the galaxy known as SMM J2135-0102. Each region was more than 100 times brighter than star-forming regions in the Milky Way, such as the Orion Nebula.

The research, published in the scientific journal Nature, suggested star formation was more vigorous and rapid in the early Universe as galaxies went through huge growth.

It revealed to the team new information on how stars formed in the early Universe.
Lead author Dr Mark Swinbank, of the Institute for Computational Cosmology, at Durham University, said: "This galaxy is like a teenager going through a growth spurt.
"If you could see it today as an adult you'd find the galactic equivalent of the football player Peter Crouch.

"We don't fully understand why the stars are forming so rapidly but our results suggest that stars formed much more efficiently in the early Universe than they do today.

"Galaxies in the early Universe appear to have gone through rapid growth and stars like our sun formed much more quickly than they do today."

Weird Science Factoid: The extended right arm of the Statue of Liberty is 42ft long.

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8 Comments

Sometimes he makes me bored to waiting him watch football. But, I try to understand it.

I like his manner to play! And I think each of his goals is like perfectly done show! Great player!

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A talented man he is, I love watching football even though it takes hours to score just 1 point if the game is really tough.
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I think he is doing great In Man City than Liverpool. Really a great finisher with nice head capability.

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Daniel Smith

Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.

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