Original news saved on 1 July 2009, 17:40 GMT from Science Daily. More below:
Dense Knots Of Cold Cosmic Dust -- Potential Birthplaces Of New Stars -- Discovered In Inner Regions Of The Milky Way Astronomers have unveiled an unprecedented new atlas of the inner regions of the Milky Way, our home galaxy, peppered with thousands of previously undiscovered dense knots of cold cosmic dust -- the potential birthplaces of new stars. Made using observations from the APEX telescope in Chile, this survey is the largest map of cold dust so far.