Despite the fact that our universe is old, cold, and well past its prime, it\u2019s not done making new galaxies yet.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Galaxy formation first got started when our universe was only a few hundred million years old. In those dark ages the first stars gathered enough material to trigger nuclear fusion and ignite. Slowly over time those clumps of stars found each other and began to build the first young protogalaxies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Over time those protogalaxies accumulated more material and merged together to quickly grow to become the massive galaxies that sprinkle throughout the universe today.<\/p>\n But galaxies are more than clumps of stars and gas. They are also deep wells of dark matter, which is the invisible substance that makes up the most of the mass of every object in the universe. To make a galaxy you really start with an accumulation of dark matter. That forms the gravitational bedrock for normal matter to gather onto and start forming stars.<\/p>\n \n