Astronomers may have just seen the first light from the first stars in the universe! In fact, they think they’ve found Population III stars, the first generation of stars to have formed after the Big Bang. Cosmologists hope to find these primordial relics, which they think first emerged roughly 200 million years after the universe was born. This emergence occurred in an unprecedented environment somewhat similar to decades of theoretical predictions.
Sheppard and collaborators focused on data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). As an example, they looked at spectroscopic observations of a very distant galaxy named LAP1-B. This galaxy, which is around 13 billion light-years away, appears to host stars that meet the criteria for Population III stars. Scientists have calculated that these colossal exoplanets will range widely in size. They don’t have to be, varying from 10 to 1,000 times the mass of our sun.
Theorists think that Population III stars formed in these clumps of dark matter. These clusters were phenomenal amount of mass, totaling around 50 million solar masses. Stars consist mostly of helium and hydrogen. They do so by containing only minute traces of lithium, their very presence revealing the primordial composition of the early universe.
Cosmological simulations by astronomers indicate that these Pop III stars formed in small groups of stars, with a total mass of a few thousand solar masses. The formation then likely occurred in tandem with the leftovers from a few of the very first, very large stars. These stars had just gone off as supernova explosions. These supernovae would have polluted the surrounding gas with early elements such as carbon and aluminum, creating conditions that would eventually lead to new star formation.
What architect Ari Visbal and his team observed was no small thing. They wrote that “LAP1-B is the first Pop III candidate to conform with all three major theoretical predictions for classical Pop III sources. This announcement highlights the importance of LAP1-B in the long search for the origins of these ancient stars.
Despite this promising find, uncertainties linger. Scientists have yet to get a definitive answer on what percentage was blown out by the early supernovae. They further wonder whether today’s computer models are actually simulating the complex forces in play during the early universe. This potential discovery is particularly exciting because previous candidates for Population III stars have repeatedly failed to satisfy the required criteria.
Despite the disappointing news, the team remained hopeful about their findings. They proposed that “LAP1-B might just be the tip of the iceberg in exploring Pop III stars with gravitational lensing by galaxy clusters.” That means there’s still a lot to be discovered, explored, and analyzed to learn more about these elusive celestial bodies.