Chapter 1: The Discovery of an Ancient Starburst

Recent observations have uncovered a significant star formation event at the core of our Milky Way galaxy, resulting in an extraordinary number of supernova explosions. Researchers utilized the HAWK-I instrument, part of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) located in the Atacama Desert, Chile, to explore this central region with remarkable clarity. This investigation led to the identification of remnants from a historical period of intense star formation, marked by a massive surge of supernovae—totaling in the hundreds of thousands.

According to Rainer Schödel from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia in Granada, Spain, who spearheaded the observations, “Our detailed survey of the Galactic center has provided valuable insights into the star formation processes occurring in this region.” His colleague, Francisco Nogueras-Lara, emphasizes the significance of their findings, stating, “We discovered that, contrary to previous beliefs, star formation has not been a continuous process in this area.”

The study's findings are slated for publication in the journal Nature.

Section 1.1: Insights from the Galactic Center

From their research, the team concluded that approximately 80% of the stars located in the central bulge of the Milky Way formed during its early history, roughly 8 to 13.5 billion years ago. This initial phase of rapid star creation was followed by a six-billion-year lull in star formation. However, around a billion years ago, another wave of intense star activity emerged, lasting less than 100 million years and producing stars with a combined mass equivalent to about ten million Suns.

“The environmental conditions during this period of activity likely mirrored those found in ‘starburst’ galaxies, where stars form at rates exceeding 100 solar masses per year,” explains Nogueras-Lara, now at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. He adds that this intense activity likely triggered more than a hundred thousand supernova explosions, marking it as one of the most energetic periods in the Milky Way's history.

The first video explores the ancient starburst discovered at the center of the Milky Way, showcasing how such events shape the galaxy's evolution.

Section 1.2: The Cycle of Creation and Destruction

Stars formed during these intense bursts typically have short lifespans, quickly ending their existence in violent supernova explosions. This cycle indicates that a phase of prolific star creation can lead to a subsequent era of catastrophic destruction. Currently, the Milky Way exhibits a much slower star formation rate, averaging about 1 to 2 solar masses per year.

The research mentioned above was made possible by the observations conducted by the HAWK-I instrument on the VLT, which is sensitive to infrared light, allowing it to penetrate the dust that obscures our view of the galaxy's center.

Chapter 2: A New Perspective on Galactic Evolution

The second video further elaborates on the implications of the ancient starburst, detailing how over 100,000 stars exploded during this remarkable event.

The image, recently published in Astronomy & Astrophysics by Nogueras-Lara and a collaborative team of astronomers from Spain, the US, Japan, and Germany, illustrates the densest regions of stars, gas, and dust in the galaxy, which also contain a supermassive black hole. The HAWK-I instrument's angular resolution of 0.2 arcseconds enables detailed observations, akin to viewing a football in Zurich from Munich, where the ESO's headquarters are located.

This image marks the first release from the GALACTICNUCLEUS survey, a project leveraging HAWK-I’s extensive field of view and high resolution to create detailed images of the Milky Way's central area, having studied over three million stars across more than 60,000 square light-years at the Galactic center distance.

Original research:

Rob is a freelance science journalist from the UK, focusing on physics, astronomy, cosmology, quantum mechanics, and niche comic books.