D. Nidever; NASAWithin the Milky Way, there are only a few instances of young, blue, newly formed stars. Out in the halo of the Milky Way, the gas is much more diffuse and far hotter; the wrong conditions to give birth to new stars. – humanity has gained the ability to measure more than a billion stars within about 100,000 light-years of home: almost the entire extent of the Milky Way galaxy. New gas is already being funneled into the Milky way from satellite galaxies that are still nearly 200,000 light-years away. This gas, low in heavy element abundance but cool in temperature, provides about 95% of the cold gas suitable for the formation of new Milky Way stars.

Source: Forbes January 09, 2020 06:56 UTC