AN ORBITING observatory has captured young galaxies forming stars at a
phenomenal rate. The light left the galaxies, 7 billion light years away, when
the Universe was roughly half its current age.
Michael Rowan-Robinson of Imperial College in London led a team of European
astronomers who focused the Infrared Space Observatory on a small patch of sky.
The results showed that many distant galaxies are up to a hundred times brighter
in the infrared than at visible wavelengths. Much of the infrared light comes
from dust clouds that have hot young stars hidden inside.
This confirms astronomers鈥� suspicions that the star formation is far more
rapid than visible observations suggest, says Rowan-Robinson. 鈥淧erhaps 80 per
cent of the star formation is hidden from normal view and is only visible in the
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