Big Baby Galaxies

Astronomers have discovered several small, young galaxies with extraordinary mass. Each galaxy is so small it could fit inside the central hub of our Milky Way, yet they contain about the same number of stars. The night sky from a planet in an ultracompact galaxy would show 200 times more stars than are visible from Earth. Most galaxies start small and merge with others to grow over time. These newly discovered galaxies are challenging astronomers' ideas of how galaxies form and grow.

Science Bulletins are made possible with significant support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

NASA  http://www.nasa.gov, ESA, P. van Dokkum (Yale University), M. Franx (Leiden University, The Netherlands), and G. Illingworth (University of California, Santa Cruz, and Lick Observatory)