Astronomers Say They Have Spotted the Universe's First Stars

[Pluvious]

The deeper we can peer into the depths of space, the further back into time we’re seeing

The JWSP is one of human’s most amazing achievements !

A g roup of astronomers poring over data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has glimpsed light from a rare isotope of helium in a distant galaxy, which could indicate the presence of the universe’s very first generation of stars.

These long-sought, inaptly named “Population III” stars would have been ginormous balls of hydrogen and helium sculpted from the universe’s primordial gas. Theorists started imagining these first fireballs in the 1970s, hypothesizing that, after short lifetimes, they exploded as supernovas, forging heavier elements and spewing them into the cosmos. That star stuff later gave rise to Population II stars more abundant in heavy elements, then even richer Population I stars like our sun, as well as planets, asteroids, comets and eventually life itself.

“We exist, therefore we know there must have been a first generation of stars,” said Rebecca Bowler, an astronomer at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/astronomers-say-they-have-spotted-the-universes-first-stars-20230130/

[EYESORE 9001]

1. Yeah, it's all fun & games for stars, forging heavier elements

but it’s all downhill once they start making iron. It’s the kiss of death for an erstwhile productive star. Nothing to look forward to besides supernova.

[Coventina]

2. Very cool!! n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

3. "a rare isotope of helium" -- specify He-2, dammit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_helium

Apparently, He-2 is actually a thing, and a very important one. {Johnny Carson voice}: I did not know that.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

4. Amazing discovery by Chinese Academy of Sciences!

Xin Wang, an astronomer at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, has detected helium-2 in the early universe, possibly signifying the presence of Population III stars.

About 400,000 years after the Big Bang, electrons, protons and neutrons settled down enough to combine into hydrogen and helium atoms. As the temperature kept dropping, dark matter gradually clumped up, pulling the atoms with it. Inside the clumps, hydrogen and helium were squashed by gravity, condensing into enormous balls of gas until, once the balls were dense enough, nuclear fusion suddenly ignited in their centers. The first stars were born.

[MMBeilis]

5. The fact that Quanta Magazine uses the term "ginormous" somehow makes me very happy, as does.....

.....any new and interesting news from the James Webb Space Telescope.

[UTUSN]

6. "inaptly" - "ginormous" - who's writing, just asking, always stepping into it.