New Hubble view of the Lagoon Nebula

To understand the physics of the evolution and formation of galaxies it is crucial to know at what rate galaxies form stars, referred to as the star-formation rate. A group of researchers used Earth- and space-based telescopes to create a complete multi-wavelength picture of distant galaxies.

Two astronomy students from Leiden University have mapped the entire Milky Way Galaxy in dwarf stars for the first time. They show that there are a total of 58 billion dwarf stars, of which seven percent reside in the outer regions of our galaxy. This result is the most comprehensive model ever for the distribution of these stars.

Spiral galaxies make up nearly three quarters of all known galaxies, some with tightly wound arms and other, like NGC 2008, with more wide-open arms wrapped around a compact central bulge.