Scientists Spot Peculiar Star That Is Remnant Of Earliest Known Stars

Scientists Spot Peculiar Star That Is Remnant Of Earliest Known Stars

Contents

AS003 is the most metal-poor star observed in a galaxy outside the solar system and also has the lowest Carbon abundance seen in any star to date.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Scientists Spot Peculiar Star That Is Remnant Of Earliest Known Stars

Astronauts have discovered a star that they believe to be a stellar fossil — a remnant of one of the earliest stars in the universe that underwent a hypernova explosion and gave rise to the new generation of stars that now shine in the darkness of space. To give some context here, a hypernova is known to be the most powerful explosion in the universe, estimated to produce nearly 100 times more energy than a supernova explosion. It happens in stars that are much larger than the Sun. In fact, scientists believe that such explosions are associated with stars that existed in the early universe and were produced after the Big Bang.

Based on stars’ chemical chemistry, scientists have divided them into three categories. Population I stars contain a rich amount of metals and can be observed in the Milky Way galaxy’s spiral arms. The Sun falls under the category of Population I stars. The next class is Population II, which are stars that have a tiny amount of metals heavier than Helium. Finally, population III stars have not been observed so far, but they are thought to have virtually no metals and are believed to be the first stars that came into existence.

See also  Xbox Free Games with Gold March 2020 Wish List

Now, researchers from the University of Florence have detected a star that stands out with its extremely low metal content and is believed to be the first observational evidence of a hypernova explosion originating from a Population III star. The study — published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters — details a star named AS0039 located in the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy that is nearly 290,000 light-years away from the Solar System. The team behind the research mentions that it is the most metal-poor star that has been observed in a galaxy outside the solar system. Moreover, it also breaks a record with a carbon abundance level that is lowest in any star detected so far. Interestingly, the Hubble telescope recently spotted a ‘ghost galaxy’ that is devoid of dark matter and has such low density that one can see straight through it.

A New Avenue For Research Into The First Stars

But it’s not just the low metallicity of AS003 that puzzled astronomers because the star also has an extremely low ratio of hydrostatic-to-explosive alpha metals such as Magnesium, Calcium, and Titanium. Further observations led scientists to believe that the star in question is a remnant of a hypernova explosion of an early Population III star. The team believes that given the relatively small size and a modest rate of star formation in the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy, it is quite possible that the traces of a hypernova explosion won’t be lost easily or get affected by subsequent star formation events of a smaller scale.

So far, the search for Population III stars has primarily focused on studying imprints of supernova explosions in a class of peculiar metal-deficient, Carbon-enhanced stars called CEMP stars. However, with the discovery of AS003, scientists believe that they’ve opened a new avenue into researching hypernova explosions and learning more about the elusive Population III stars that are said to be the ancestors of all other stars in the universe. The team behind the research — titled “Zero-metallicity hypernova uncovered by an ultra metal-poor star in the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy” — says further spectroscopy data will help them learn more about Population III stars and hypernova explosions. A recent space study covering the Perseus and Taurus molecular clouds postulated that supernova explosions ignite a chain of events that leads to the formation of new stars.

See also  How The Alien TV Series Can Return To The Franchise’s Roots

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/scientists-discover-population-iii-star/

Movies -