Despite the fact that a dense population of stars exists at the heart of the Milky Way — roughly 26,000 light-years from Earth — only a small fraction of these stars have been observed thus far.
In terms of mass, the Milky Way forms new stars at a rate of just a few times that of theeach year. Starburst galaxies, on the other hand, produce tens or even hundreds of solar masses per year. This rapid star formation occurs in bursts lasting a few million years — relatively short time periods on a cosmic scale.
This means the core of the Milky Way is a fitting proxy for starburst galaxies, or even for the galaxies of ten billion years ago.In order to observe the central region of the galaxy, astronomers still must account for several challenges. Firstly, the thick dust in the Milky Way's disk obscures our view of the galaxy's core.
This means that while observations of ionized hydrogen — created when ultraviolet light from hot young stars rips electrons away from atoms — have confirmed that rapid star formation is happening at the heart of our galaxy, the stars produced as a result of this have been tough to spot. By examining the statistical distribution of stellar luminosity for the stars and sorting them into a 'brightness bracket' the researchers could trace their lifetimes, how many stars were formed at what time, and thus the evolution of star formation in the galactic center.
The team also found that Sagittarius B1 and the innermost regions of the galactic center are populated with older stars — above the age of 7 billion years — while there is a shortage of stars aged between 2 and 7 billion years. This may show that star formation at the center of the Milky Way began in its innermost areas and then radiated outwards.
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