BBC Focus Magazine

[Shadowwolf]

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have discovered that one of the most distant galaxies known is churning out stars at a shockingly high rate. The blob-shaped galaxy, called GN-108036, is the brightest galaxy found to date at such great distances.

The galaxy, which was discovered and confirmed using ground-based telescopes, is 12.9 billion light-years away. Data from Spitzer and Hubble were used to measure the galaxy's high star production rate, equivalent to about 100 suns per year. For reference, our Milky Way galaxy is about five times larger and 100 times more massive than GN-108036, but makes roughly 30 times fewer stars per year.

They say, "is churning out" but I reckon 'was' would be a better term as it's probably not so prolific now.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer20111221.html

[M Paul Lloyd]

Yes, at 12.9 billion years of age I would expect it to be a little less active than it was.