A gas cloud 13 billion light-years away may be the resting place of some of the earliest stars in the universe.
Astronomers may have just found the remnants of some of the universe's very first stars. The chemical signatures of these faraway, 13-plus-billion-year-old objects are remarkably different from those of younger stars, like our sun. By studying them, scientists hope to shed light on how stars, galaxies and even basic elements form.
The research, co-authored by University of Florence astrophysicist Stefania Salvadori , was published May 3 in The Astrophysical Journal . In the earliest days of the universe, only very simple elements such as hydrogen and helium were available. The first stars ignited from these elements alone. Over time, their white-hot cores gradually cooked simple atoms into heavier elements, such as carbon, oxygen, magnesium and eventually metals. Later generations of stars formed from clouds of gas containing these heavier atoms, and today most of the stars scientists observe are rich in metals like iron.
Sure enough, the clouds were extremely poor in iron and other metallic elements, but rich in carbon, oxygen and magnesium — precisely what would have been left over after the first stars ran out of fuel and exploded, according to the researchers. This tracks with other research into the origins of stars, and may help explain the composition of younger stars, including those found in the Milky Way.
"Our discovery opens new avenues to indirectly study the nature of the first stars, fully complementing studies of stars in our galaxy," Salvadori said in a statement .
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