A team of astronomers discovers a star on the outskirts of the Milky Way that turns out to be a galactic treasure trove with traces of a stellar ancestor!
LAMOST image J101051.9+235850.2 by SDSS. Credit: SDSS/NAOJ
Is the star still related to the first generation of stars in the Universe? Let’s find out!
For almost a hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, the Universe was still cold and dark. At that time the universe consisted only of hydrogen and helium atoms. One hundred million years later, these dense areas of atoms underwent gravitational collapse and formed the first generations of stars and galaxies.
First Generation Star
According to astronomers, the first generation of stars that we know as Population III stars are massive stars hundreds of times more massive than the Sun. Massive stars like these have short lives and end in supernova explosions without leaving any remains or debris for astronomers to study. In fact, the gas that is released when a star explodes is crucial for tracking the first generations of stars in the Universe.
The gas released when the massive first-generation star exploded has a different chemical signature from the gas released when a less massive, longer-lived star exploded. After exploding, the gas from the first generation of stars becomes the seed or material for the formation of the next generation of stars.
Chemical Trace
Just as we carry with us the genetic footprints of our ancestors, the second generation stars also carry the chemical signatures of the first generations of stars. However, the traces of the next generation’s star explosion in the family tree, could erase the traces of the first generation’s stars. Because of this, astronomers are hunting for traces of pure, uncontaminated first-generation stars. And this time they found it!
While studying the oldest stars in the Milky Way with China’s LAMOST survey telescope, a team of astronomers from Japan and China discovered LAMOST J1010+2358 which is 3,000 light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Leo.
The star LAMOST J1010+2358 is like a stranger wandering the edge of the Milky Way. And after astronomers studied the chemical mix of these stars, they found a match with the chemical signatures of the first generation of stars.
Cool Facts:
This discovery is significant because LAMOST J1010+2358 is the first star to exhibit first-generation star trails. This discovery also confirms the theory that massive stars with a mass 140 times the mass of the Sun formed when the Universe was very young.
Source: This article is a republished version developed from Indonesian edition of Space Scoop Universe Awareness. The Indonesian edition of Space Scoop is translated by Langitselatan.
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2023-07-17 01:00:00
#Tracing #Traces #Star #Ancestors
