A firestorm of star birth (artist’s illustration)

This illustration depicts a view of the night sky from a hypothetical planet within the youthful Milky Way galaxy 10 billion years ago. The heavens are ablaze with a firestorm of star birth; glowing pink clouds of hydrogen gas harbour countless newborn stars, and the bluish-white hue of young star clusters litter the landscape. The star birth rate is 30 times higher than it is in the Milky Way today. The Sun, however, is not among these fledgling stars — it will not be born for another 5 billion years.