If astronomers observe very blue, very bright stars in a distant galaxy, what does this imply about that star-forming region?
Answer
The star-forming region is cosmologically young, as older massive stars would have already exploded
Massive stars, being the brightest and most blue objects, consume their fuel extremely rapidly, existing for only a few million years before exploding as supernovae. Therefore, if astronomers detect these luminous, massive stars in a distant galaxy, it serves as a clear marker that the star-forming activity in that region must have happened very recently in cosmic terms. If the galaxy were old and quiescent (no longer forming stars), the brightest visible objects would be the longer-lived, lower-mass stars or the remnants left by past generations.
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