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Baby stars jostling for space in stellar nursery

April 21, 2009 Edition 1

The constellation Orion hides a busy stellar nursery, crowded with young stars blasting out jets of gas, according to astronomers.

A dusty nebula that looks like a fuzzy patch around Orion's "sword" hides a large region bursting with immature stars, they said.

"Regions like this are… referred to as stellar nurseries, but… this one is not being well run: it is chaotic and seriously overcrowded," said Chris Davis of the Joint Astronomy Center in Hawaii.

Thomas Stanke, of the European Southern Observatory in Germany, said: "Many of the stars currently being born in Orion will evolve to be just like the sun. Some may even have Earth-like planets." - Reuters

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