The Milky Way is churning out far more stars than previously thought, according to a new estimate of its star formation rate.
Gamma rays from aluminum-26, a radioactive isotope that arises primarily from massive stars, reveal that the Milky Way converts four to eight solar masses of interstellar gas and dust into new stars each year, researchers report in work submitted to arXiv.org on January 24. That range is two to four times the conventional estimate and corresponds to an annual birthrate in our galaxy of about 10 to 20 stars, because most stars are less massive than the sun.
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