April 16, 2008—Strings of baby stars take shape in a distant galactic womb, as shown in this new NASA image of the Southern Pinwheel galaxy.

Embryonic stars were found to be growing in the galaxy's spindly arms (shown in red), rather than in its bright heart—a discovery that scientists this week described as "absolutely stunning."

Astronomers had previously believed that such outlying sections of galaxies lacked the necessary materials for star formation.

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