Story perspectives

Study Reveals Diverse Star Formation in Ultramassive Galaxies

1/14/2026

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Summary

Story summary

Ultramassive galaxies—over 100 billion stars—were studied to understand their early evolution after the Big Bang.
Wenjun Chang at UC Riverside led a team that found these galaxies did not follow a uniform star-formation path.
The study used more than 30 nights of Keck Observatory observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Very Large Array (VLA).
Most galaxies had ceased star formation, while one dust-obscured example remained active.

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Story summary

Ultramassive galaxies—over 100 billion stars—were studied to understand their early evolution after the Big Bang.
Wenjun Chang at UC Riverside led a team that found these galaxies did not follow a uniform star-formation path.
The study used more than 30 nights of Keck Observatory observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Very Large Array (VLA).
Most galaxies had ceased star formation, while one dust-obscured example remained active.