The first stars were big, bright, and burned out only a few million years after their formation. These stars formed out of nearly pure hydrogen and helium with no traces of heavier elements like iron and sodium found in later generation of stars, since these elements formed in nuclear reactions in the first stars themselves. None of these primordial ‘Population III’ stars exist in the local universe since they long ago exploded as supernovae. But astronomers have been searching for these first stars in distant galaxies that formed long ago. For the first time, a team of researchers have found the first signatures of these stars in a small galaxy observed with the JWST (and with the help of gravitational lensing by an intervening galaxy cluster). Neil deGrasse Tyson explains the what they found in the above video.
If you’re keen on learning more about the first stars, have a look at my feature article about stellar archaeology and the first stars published in Sky & Telescope magazine in June 2020 at this link.
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