The center of the Milky Way Galaxy is already packed with stars. But in a few million years, tens of thousands more could flare to life in a region known as the Brick. It’s a vast cloud of cold, dark gas and dust that’s shaped like a brick.

It may be the biggest future star cluster in the entire galaxy. It’s more than a hundred thousand times the mass of the Sun. And observations in recent years have shown that it contains dozens of dense blobs of material – “cocoons” that could be giving birth to stars even now.

Stars are born when such blobs collapse under their own weight. As a blob collapses, it gets hotter. If it gets hot enough, nuclear fusion ignites in its core – giving birth to a star.

There are indications that a few small stars have already formed in the Brick. But such giant clouds are also where big, heavy stars are born – stars that shine tens of thousands of times brighter than the Sun.

It’s not certain that the Brick will give birth to many stars at all. While it has the right ingredients, it’s in the most crowded region of the galaxy. The gravity of the stars and clouds around it could keep it too stirred up to form stars. Powerful magnetic fields could hinder star formation as well.

Astronomers will study the Brick in more detail in the coming years to determine whether it’s the site of future fireworks – or a galactic dud.

Script by Damond Benningfield