For the first time, scientists have observed the chemical trace of the oldest stars in the universe

To indicate the presence of the third star cluster effect, it requires further examination with powerful telescopes such as James Webb to extract a number of properties that confirm beyond any doubt the observation of the oldest stars in the universe at all.

An international research team announced capturing the chemical trace of the so-called "third star population", which is the first and largest star to appear in this universe at all, as it arose only 100 million years after the moment of the Big Bang.

To reach these findings, which were recently published in the "The Astrophysical Journal ", the researchers used the "North Gemini" telescope, one of two telescopes with a diameter of 8.1 meters each, belonging to the International Gemini Observatory, which are located in two separate locations. North is in Hawaii, and South is in Chile.

The team analyzed data from observing one of the most distant known quasars (hot gaseous regions surrounding a supermassive black hole) at a distance of 13.1 billion light-years, which is a unit of distance equal to about 9.5 trillion kilometers.

According to the study, the researchers used an innovative mathematical method and technique to deduce the composition of the chemical elements present in the clouds surrounding the quasar, and noticed a completely unusual composition, as those clouds contained iron in an amount equal to more than 10 times the magnesium.

The researchers hypothesize that this ratio, which is unusual in the universe now, is more like a "fingerprint" that expresses the explosion of stars from the category of "Population III stars" in this place.

Oldest stars ever

According to currently prevailing theories in the field of astrophysics, the elements created after the Big Bang are hydrogen (75%) and helium (25%), with a very small portion of other light elements such as lithium and beryllium. The first stars in the universe were born from these elements, without any contamination with heavy metals such as iron, unlike the stars that exist today.

Scientists at this scale assume that the high density of hydrogen, in the first 100 million years of the universe’s history, caused the birth of very massive stars ranging between 150 and 250 times the mass of the sun, and these stars exploded at the end of their lives in a way that is the most powerful in the universe, and from the remnants of the explosion came out New chemical elements differ in their proportions from the current stars.

According to the study, the detected ratio of iron to magnesium is consistent with supernovae of this type, and thus indicates the presence of the third star population.

The decisive word for James Webb

However, these results are not a complete confirmation of the presence of the third star cluster trace, according to an official press release issued by NOIRLab, a US government research organization that runs the "Jimny" project, where further examination with powerful telescopes such as James Webb, to extract a number of other properties that confirm beyond any doubt the observation of the oldest stars in the universe at all.

And when that happens, it will be the first announcement in history of the existence of the third star population, which remains a hypothesis until the moment these words are written.