A team led by astronomer Eli Visbal provided evidence of POP-III stars, with the JWST’s infrared spectrum revealing that these stars emitted intense ultraviolet light, approximately 100 times the mass of the Sun.
NASA study reveals evidence of 1st-generation stars
New Delhi: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has observed some of the oldest stars in the universe, formed shortly after the Big Bang. According to a study published last month in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, these ancient stars, also known as Population-III or POP-III stars, are located in a galaxy called LAP1-B, 13 billion light-years away from Earth.
A team led by astronomer Eli Visbal provided evidence of POP-III stars, with the JWST's infrared spectrum revealing that these stars emitted intense ultraviolet light, approximately 100 times the mass of the Sun. The study also indicated that LAP1-B met three theoretical conditions for the formation of POP-III stars:
These stars formed in a low-metallicity (hydrogen and helium) environment, with a temperature suitable for star formation.
They formed in low-mass clusters containing only a few very massive stars.
This cluster satisfies the mathematical conditions for the initial mass function.
According to Space.com, Visbal said, "If these are indeed Pop-III stars, this is the first discovery of these early stars. To find POP-III stars, we needed the sensitivity of the JWST, and we also needed 100 times magnification from gravitational lensing by a galaxy cluster between LAP1-B and us."
Evolution of the Universe
These stars could also be the building blocks for larger galaxies, helping astronomers learn more about the structure and evolution of the universe's first cosmic systems. According to prevailing theories, these ancient stars formed when hydrogen and helium combined with dark matter, creating massive stars with masses up to a million times that of the Sun and a billion times brighter than our star.
Wiesbal said, "In the next step, we want to perform more detailed hydrodynamic simulations of the transition from Pop-III to Pop-II stars (the second generation of stars in the universe) to see if they match the spectrum of LAP-1B and similar objects."
The researchers added that "LAP1-B is probably just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to studying Pop-III stars with gravitational lensing from galaxy clusters."
