Starbirth shuts down 40,000 light-years from the Milky Way's core — and astronomers don't know why
By Keith Cooper
Published on April 28, 2026.
Astronomers have found the boundary of star formation in the Milky Way's spiral disk, which is not as far out from the center of our galaxy as previously thought. The results suggest that star formation occurs within a region that extends to a radius of 40,000 light-years from the galactic center. The study's lead author, Karl Fiteni, used spectroscopic data from the LAMOST (Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) telescope in China and the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) at the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in the United States. The average age of stars decreases with radius from galactic center, creating a U-shaped distribution of ages. The findings were published in the journal The Astronomical Journal.
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Starbirth shuts down 40,000 light-years from the Milky Way's core — and astronomers don't know why
Astronomers have identified the Milky Way's star formation boundary at 40,000 light-years, with a U-shaped distribution based on initial star formation.