wednesday, 9 january, 2002, 19:20 gmt

deep secrets of star birth revealed

a new analysis of the deepest views of the cosmos ever taken by an
optical telescope suggests that stars burst into existence
dramatically and suddenly.

the new finding indicate that there was a "stellar firestorm" when
the universe was young, as myriads of stars were formed in far
greater numbers than we see today.

"if this can be verified, it will dramatically change our
understanding of the universe," said dr anne kinney, of the us space
agency, nasa.

...astronomers say that during this time, the sky would have looked
very different from the vast stretches of galaxies around us today.
everywhere the sky would have been ablaze with bright knots of hot,
blue stars in a universe-wide "firework display".

..."proving that countless numbers of stars began forming so early
after the birth of the universe could cause us to rethink a lot of
our theories" dr kenneth lanzetta, state university of new york

rest of article -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1750986.stm