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Scientists have made groundbreaking discoveries in deep space, revealing a star at the edge of our Milky Way that exceeds all conventional expectations. Astronomers were amazed by its unique chemical composition, which had never been observed before. This remarkable discovery fits perfectly with theoretical predictions about the chemical remnants of very large and ancient stars, making it the most convincing yet that the early universe hid these massive stellar giants. provide evidence of
astronomers have discovered an unusual, exotic and rare star at the edge of the Milky Way. The object has a chemical composition unlike any known, and instead represents the theoretical imprint of a very massive protostar. This discovery is the most compelling evidence that the first stars in the universe were really huge.
Exotic and Rare Stars Just Outside the Milky Way Galaxy
The first stars formed from clouds of gas composed entirely of hydrogen and helium. Nuclear fusion processes and catastrophic supernova explosions have formed new elements inside these stars. Thus began the emergence of a universe filled with diverse matter.
Theory suggests that many of these pioneer stars are much smaller stars that are more common in the Universe today, and are gigantic in size. This makes them not only rare, but also exotic. Stars with more than 140 times the mass of the Sun may have had a significant impact on the space environment due to their strong ultraviolet radiation. Moreover, supernova explosions known as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe) may have had a profound impact on subsequent generations of stars.
Signatures embedded in stars
Despite these compelling theories, there is little clear empirical evidence for such supernovae caused by massive stars. A great deal of effort has been made to observe the propagation of matter in obsolete stars within our galaxy, in distant galaxies, and between galaxies. Some older stars formed from clouds of elemental gas ejected from the first star, preserving the chemical composition of the first supernova. This is because the product of giant stars, PISNe, offers a unique chemical composition that differs from typical nuclear collapse supernovae. Astronomers hope to find traces of these giant structures in the oldest stars.
An international team of astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC) and other research institutes has been studying the early generation of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. They used the Large Space Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopy Telescope (LAMOST) in China to identify and analyze the complex chemical composition of these stars using the Subaru telescope.
Revealing Supernova Legacy
Among these stars, a star called LAMOST J101051.9+235850.2 or J1010+2358 was revealed. It has the unmistakable chemical fingerprint of a pair-unstable supernova. The discovery provides the clearest evidence yet for such supernovae and supports the theory that the early universe produced stars with masses greater than 140 times that of the Sun.
“The peculiar odd-even dispersion of this star, combined with the deficiency of sodium and alpha elements, agrees with the primordial PISN prediction of a 260 solar-mass first-generation star,” asserts Dr. XING Qianfan, lead author of the study, said:
This finding provides concrete evidence for the theory of violent stellar evolution and the generation of hydrodynamic instabilities due to electron-positron pair generation in such stars. The formation of these pairs lowers the thermal pressure within the stellar core, causing partial collapse.
Mapping the Universe: Unraveling the Early Universe
According to Professor ZHAO Gang, the corresponding author of the study, “This discovery provides important clues to constraining the initial mass function of the early Universe.”
Over the past decade, the research team has extensively studied the stars discovered by LAMOST using the Subaru Telescope. Professor Wako Aoki of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said, “It has been a long-standing challenge to find evidence of massive stars that are unique to the first stars in the universe, but we have finally achieved our goal with this study.”
The next question that astronomers must answer is to determine what percentage of the original stars were gigantic. For this purpose, exploration and chemical analysis of many other stars are required. These groundbreaking results were published in Nature.
