Early Universe Galaxy Feeds on Recycled Gas to Form New Stars.

Astronomers have observed a giant nebula in a cluster of young galaxies feeding on material some of them previously spewed out, just three billion years after the Big Bang. The observations add to the growing evidence that galaxies mature by trading material with their local environments. The study team imaged MAMMOTH-1, a bright nebula in a dense galaxy cluster roughly 11 billion light-years from Earth, and found it feeding on material from its local environment via at least three streams of gas. These streams illuminate part of the cosmic web that connects galaxies with their local environments.