An international team, including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), has detected the formation of a very remote galaxy from the violent collision of two other galaxies The data, obtained by NASA and ESA space telescopes, and by terrestrial telescopes, contradict a commonly-held theory that explains the formation of massive galaxies from the agglomeration of smaller galaxies over time When the Universe was three or four million year old it was already populated with massive red elliptical galaxies containing old stars. The

Born in Alicante, Martínez Pillet will lead the institution in the coming years while taking on the challenge of setting up the largest solar observatory in the world on Hawaii

A study, with the participation of the IAC, has detected the most distant known galaxy with explosive star formation that began its production when the Universe was very young. While the Milky Way creates one star a year, this galaxy produces around 3000 stars in the same period. This find challenges theories explaining the formation and evolution of galaxies, which claim that a galaxy of such characteristics could not exist so early in the life of the Universe. The Milky Way is capable of forming approximately one star per year. The new galaxy identified in this study, in which the

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The investigation is published in the latest issue of the journal 'Science'

2012 DA14: 49,000 kilometres in 106 minutes