A team of Hubble Telescope astronomers has announced the discovery of infant stars in a galaxy neighboring the Milky Way.
The stars were found in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a fragmentary galaxy some 200,000 light years from earth used by scientists as a laboratory to study how stars are born.
Astronomers say Hubble has taken images of a large number of infant stars still forming from collapsing gas clouds, and say the youngest of these is only half the mass of our sun.
Though star birth is common in Earth's own galaxy, scientists say the young star is unusual because it lacks many of the elements it needs to fuel itself.
Some information for this report provided by AFP.