Stars born in winds from supermassive black holes spotted

​London Astronomers have observed for the first time stars forming within powerful outflows of material blasted out from supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies.

"Astronomers have thought for a while that conditions within these outflows could be right for star formation, but no one has seen it actually happening as it's a very difficult observation," said team leader Roberto Maiolino from University of Cambridge.

"Our results are exciting because they show unambiguously that stars are being created inside these outflows," Maiolino added.

The discovery, published in the journal Nature, has many consequences for understanding galaxy properties and evolution.

The discovery provides new and exciting information that could better our understanding of some astrophysics, including how certain galaxies obtain their shapes; how intergalactic space becomes enriched with heavy elements; and even from where unexplained cosmic infrared background radiation may arise.

The group of European astronomers used the MUSE and X-shooter instruments on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile to study an ongoing collision between two galaxies, known collectively as IRAS F23128-5919, that lie around 600 million light-years from Earth.