Lynx Arc

The Lynx Arc was discovered in 2003 and is considered to be the hottest known star-birthing region in the Universe as of October 2003.

It is located 12 billion light years away from earth, 8 million times farther away and one million times brighter than the Orion nebula. It contains about 1 million blue stars, the Orion nebula only contains 4.

The Lynx Arc was found in a systematic search with the help of a gravitational lens, a 4.5 billion light years distant Galaxy cluster. Amongst others the Keck Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope and ROSAT participated in the search.

The surface temperature of the stars in the Lynx Arc is estimated to be around 80000°K, about twice as hot as stars in our neighborhood. Only the stars formed directly after the big bang are considered to be hotter (around 120000°K). The huge distance of the Lynx Arc enables us to watch 12 billion years into the past, a long time before our solar system was born. At that time, the universe was only 2 billion years old. The first stars were born 1.8 billion years before the Lynx Arc.

References

* [http://www.keckobservatory.org/article.php?id=45 M.W. Keck Observatory]
* [http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMPI8WLDMD_FeatureWeek_0.html ESA]