Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The carbon and oxygen and nitrogen in your body was forged in stars at cosmic noon. If that peak had been smaller, or happened at a different time, the chemical make up of the Universe would be completely different. And life as we know it might not have been possible.
In 2014, Madau and Dickinson, two of the original authors on the original 1996 paper, published a review collating nearly two decades of star formation history data and gave us this version of the Madau plot. On the right side of this plot, which shows what was going on in the first few billion years of the Universe’s life, star formation appears to be relatively modest. But then, the amount of star formation rises. Steeply. Peaking ten billion years ago when the Universe was about three and a half billion years old. At that peak, the Universe was forming stars at a rate somewhere between ten and thirty times higher than it is today!
This is what’s known as cosmic noon. It’s when our galaxy the Milky Way formed the majority of its stars. And when most of the heavy elements that would eventually make their way into forming planets and people were being forged in stars and scattered across the Universe in supernovae.
After that the amount of stars forming falls slowly but steadily as the Universe gradually runs out of fuel. We are living today in the long, slow sunset of star formation.
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
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📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
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👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): dr-becky.teemill.com
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🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive
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🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!
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👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
The carbon and oxygen and nitrogen in your body was forged in stars at cosmic noon. If that peak had been smaller, or happened at a different time, the chemical make up of the Universe would be completely different. And life as we know it might not have been possible.
In 2014, Madau and Dickinson, two of the original authors on the original 1996 paper, published a review collating nearly two decades of star formation history data and gave us this version of the Madau plot. On the right side of this plot, which shows what was going on in the first few billion years of the Universe’s life, star formation appears to be relatively modest. But then, the amount of star formation rises. Steeply. Peaking ten billion years ago when the Universe was about three and a half billion years old. At that peak, the Universe was forming stars at a rate somewhere between ten and thirty times higher than it is today!
This is what’s known as cosmic noon. It’s when our galaxy the Milky Way formed the majority of its stars. And when most of the heavy elements that would eventually make their way into forming planets and people were being forged in stars and scattered across the Universe in supernovae.
After that the amount of stars forming falls slowly but steadily as the Universe gradually runs out of fuel. We are living today in the long, slow sunset of star formation.
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
---
📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
---
👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): dr-becky.teemill.com
---
🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive
---
🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!
---
👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
