Scientists have an idea how stars are formed. There are stars in various stages of their life cycles in the universe today, and a number of them have been studied already. Star formation in the early universe was quite different though, and scientists speculate how stars were formed in the early universe.
After the Big Bang, the universe was still dark. The first stars didn't begin to appear until around 100 million years after the event. Star formation is said to have peaked when the universe was three billion years old.
Astronomers have been wondering why star formation peaked then, and whether that has much to do with how different the universe was then. Many scientists have speculated that the early universe was vastly different from how it is now, and that might account for the reason why there was a peak of star formation then.
Scientists are looking at how much gas was back in the early universe. For galaxies the ability to create stars depends on how much gas is available. This is called the gas fraction. Stars are dependent on how much gas is available since they are made up of gases.
The gas in galaxies isn't endless though. Gases in galaxies are used up as stars are formed, according to Phys Org. In a cycle of birth and death, as the star's life comes to an end it expends the remaining gases it has. Eventually the star blows up and leaves with it a remnant. The expended gases from the star's nova or supernova would be the next building block for new stars.
Francesca Civano and her colleagues are studying 45 massive galaxies that are at their peak in forming stars. The team used the ALMA facility to study the gas fractions of these galaxies. Since gases are too faint for the study, the team used the dust there, as Astronomy Now reports. Through the study the team hopes to discover just how stars in the universe were formed through the study of these large galaxies.
Scientists speculate how stars were formed in the early universe. While many have an idea how stars now form, there is still much to be known about the early universe. Another mystery that scientists are looking into are X-ray pulsars.
