Scientists Discover Oldest Star in Universe, Named Population III in Galaxy GN-z11

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Astronomers have managed to find the oldest star in the universe. The existence of this first generation star was discovered after scientists made observations using two near-infrared instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec).

Launching the Live Science page, Monday (11/03/2024), the oldest star in the universe is named Population III. The Population III star was discovered in one of the most distant known galaxies, namely GN-z11.

The GN-z11 galaxy was formed 430 million years after the Big Bang. For comparison, the universe is currently 13.8 billion years old.

Scientists can calculate the age of a star based on its abundance of heavy elements. The heavy elements of stars are formed from previous generations of stars and eventually form new stars.

The youngest stars that formed during the last five or six billion years are referred to as Population I. Population I has the highest abundance of heavy elements.

The sun at the center of the Milky Way solar system is a Population I star. Older stars contain fewer heavy elements and are called Population II stars.

These stars live in the oldest regions of the Milky Way galaxy. However, so far Population III stars are only hypothetical.

This is because the stars were the first to form, and because no other stars appeared before them. So Population III stars do not contain heavy elements and are only made of pure hydrogen and helium formed during the Big Bang.

These first stars were also thought to be very luminous, with masses equivalent to at least several hundred Suns. Although astronomers have yet to see the Population III star directly, a team of astronomers led by Roberto Maiolino from the University of Cambridge have detected indirect evidence of the star’s existence in the galaxy GN-z11.

NIRSpec observed a plume of ionized helium near the edge of GN-z11 by something that produces large amounts of ultraviolet light. Then researchers called it the Population III star.

Most likely, the helium witnessed is leftover material from the formation of these stars. Meanwhile, based on other observations, the team of astronomers also found evidence of the existence of a black hole with the mass of two million suns at the heart of GN-z11.

The black hole at the center of GN-Z11 is the most distant supermassive black hole discovered so far. Not only that, astronomers also identified that the black hole was devouring a large amount of matter and growing at a much faster speed.

The study of ionized helium blobs and Population III stars was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Meanwhile, the NIRCam observation study of black holes was published on January 17 in the journal Nature.

2024-03-11 20:00:00
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