NASA's Hubble confirms that galaxies are the ultimate recyclers

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/nsfc-nhc111711.php

Public release date: 17-Nov-2011
Contact: Cheryl Gundy
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
NASA's Hubble confirms that galaxies are the ultimate recyclers

New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are expanding astronomers' understanding of the ways in which galaxies continuously recycle immense volumes of hydrogen gas and heavy elements. This process allows galaxies to build successive generations of stars stretching over billions of years.

This ongoing recycling keeps some galaxies from emptying their "fuel tanks" and stretches their star-forming epoch to over 10 billion years.

[...]

..