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In the beginning, there was the Big Bang. Ultimately, all of the matter particles in existence were produced in this primal cataclysm, but not in the forms we know them today. When the universe cooled to the point that atoms could form, the only elements present were hydrogen (with one proton) and helium (with two protons). To have a universe with planets and the possibility of life, it is necessary to have lots of other, heavier elements, such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur, for starters. These heavier elements are synthesized in stars, where, under great pressure, atoms with small nuclei are forced together to form atoms with larger nuclei. So the stars that formed in the early universe would have started consisting solely of hydrogen and helium, and would have manufactured the first atoms of elements further along the periodic table. Such stars are calle Population III stars. What were these stars like? What would a galaxy made up of these early stars look like?
The universe is more than 13 billion years old, and no Population III stars still exist. However, because light travels at a universally constant speed, the further away an observed galaxy is, the older it is. A challenge for the most powerful telescopes is to see if it is possible to look far back enough in time to observe a galaxy that is made of Population III stars. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is arguably the most powerful telescope in existence, and while it hasn’t found a galaxy of Population III stars, it appears to have gotten close.
The galaxy, called GS-NDG-9422 (9422), was spotted just one billion years after the Big Bang and is filled with massive stars burning nearly twice as hot as those typically found in the local universe.
These exotic stars are bombarding the gas clouds that surround them with enormous quantities of light particles (photons) , heating the clouds up and causing them to outshine the stars they enshroud — a rare trait hypothesized to exist in galaxies that contain the oldest generations of stars, according to the study authors. The researchers published their findings in the October issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
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The galaxy's stars are burning at temperatures of 140,000 degrees Fahrenheit (80,000 degrees Celsius), almost twice as hot as the 70,000 to 90,000 degrees F(40,000 to 50,000 degrees C) found in our local universe. Despite this, the ultra-hot stars are likely not part of the oldest generation of stars in the universe, as the researchers spotted elements beyond just hydrogen and helium.
Population III stars are theorized to be large, very hot, and short-lived. Their lives would end with a supernova explosion that would disperse the heavier elements they produced far and wide. The fact that the galaxy studied in this work showed evidence of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium tells us that the stars it contains are not the earliest stars, but they are likely from the next generation of stars, hence the use of the term “missing link.” Further, the stars in this galaxy are much hotter than commonly observed, and the light of the stars is outshone by the gas clouds present in the galaxy, which have been heated up to glowing temperatures by the light of the stars. This is not typical behavior of more thoroughly studied nearby galaxies.
As is the case with the results of most scientific studies, this raises a few questions. How common was this type of galaxy among this second generation of stars? Answering this question would require finding other billion-year-old galaxies for comparison. Further, is it actually possible still to find a galaxy of actual Population III stars? If so, how to they compare to this “missing link” galaxy? We’ll have to wait for an answer.
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