Sun Came Later In The Milky Way Star Nursery, New Study Says

Out sun arrived little late in the early days of the Milky Way, according to a new study. The study added that it only formed when the stellar version of a "baby boom" had almost fizzled out.

The study further added that the peak of star formation in the Milky Way occurred 10 billion years ago but the sun only formed after 5 billion years.

Researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories to survey almost 2,000 spiral galaxies with similarities to the Milky Way.

"This study allows us to see what the Milky Way may have looked like in the past," said Casey Papovich of Texas A&M University, lead author of the study. "It shows that these galaxies underwent a big change in the mass of its stars over the past 10 billion years, bulking up by a factor of 10, which confirms theories about their growth."

Researchers added that the majority of the bulking-up occurred in the first 5 billion years following the galaxies beginnings. By the time sun appeared most of the star formation were slowed down.

"I think the evidence suggests that we can account for the majority of the buildup of a Milky Way-like galaxy through its star formation," he added.

The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal.