The Universe continues to form stars, but does so at an increasingly slower rate. A new study revealed that, over the last 4.5 billion years, the star formation rate dropped to approximately half of what it was during that period.
The researchers discovered that, although the star formation rate has decreased significantly, galaxies have not lost an equivalent amount of their main raw material, that is, the gas needed to create new stars. This means that the slowdown in stellar production is not simply due to a shortage of available fuel.
This discovery represents a challenge for the current understanding of how the large stellar factories of the cosmos work. Scientists will now have to reconsider existing theories about what is causing the progressive shutdown of these star creation processes in the Universe.
