New research led by Dr. James De Buizer at the SETI Institute and Dr. Wanggi Lim at IPAC at Caltech revealed surprising results about the rate at which high-mass stars form in the galactic center of the Milky Way. The researchers based their study primarily on observations from NASA’s now-retired SOFIA airborne observatory, focusing on three star-forming regions—Sgr B1, Sgr B2, and Sgr C—located at the heart of the galaxy.