Out on the edge of the universe, 75,000 light years from us, a galaxy known as Segue 1 has some unusual properties: It is the faintest galaxy ever detected. It is very small, containing only about 1,000 stars. And it has a rare chemical composition, with vanishingly small amounts of metallic elements present.
Now a team of scientists, including an MIT astronomer, has analyzed that chemical composition and come away with new insights into the evolution of galaxies in the early stages of our universe — or, in this case, into a striking lack of evolution in Segue 1. Commonly, stars form from gas clouds and then burn up as supernova explosions after about a billion years, spewing more of the elements that are the basis for a new generation of star formation.
Not Segue 1: In contrast to all other galaxies, as the new analysis shows, it appears that Segue 1’s process of star formation halted at what would normally be an early stage of a galaxy’s development. ...
Carnegie: Nearby Galaxy Is a "Fossil" from the Early Universe
Segue 1: An Unevolved Fossil Galaxy from the Early Universe - Anna Frebel, Joshua D. Simon, Evan N. Kirby
- Astrophysical Journal 786(1) 74 (2014 May 01) DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/786/1/74
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1403.6116 > 24 Mar 2014