EARTHSKY - You’d expect active star formation in the early universe, when all things were just beginning. And indeed, when they look far out into space (and therefore far back in time), astronomers do see active, blue star-forming regions. But a newly analyzed protocluster, or newborn galaxy cluster, bucks that trend. It appears to exist in the early universe. But it looks old, red and dead. A team of astronomers from the University of California Riverside announced the unusual findings on February 9, 2022.