Posted: Thu, Jan 10, 2002, 8:20 AM ET (1320 GMT)
The early universe may have featured a "torrential firestorm" of star birth unparalleled in the history of the universe, astronomers reported Tuesday. An analysis of the Hubble Deep Field has led a team of astronomers to conclude that the rate of star birth increases as one goes back to time, with that rate peaking just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. This conclusion is based on a study of colors in distant objects visible in the Hubble Deep Field, leading them to conclude that those objects are intensely bright stars embedded in galaxies too dim to be seen by Hubble. Astronomers, led by Kenneth Lanzetta of SUNY Stony Brook, plan to use the Advanced Camera for Surveys to be installed on Hubble during the next shuttle mission in March to try and look for traces of these galaxies or very distant supernovae.

Related Links:

•  Space Telescope Science Institute press release
•  SPACE.com article
•  AP article