Early stars may not have died! They left us a bubble

Scientists discover a supernova that destroyed an early star

The team used a 13.1-billion-year-old quasar to detect chemical traces of Population III stars.

Astronomers have discovered chemical traces of a star that existed when the universe was just 10 million years old and may be one of the earliest stars - now exploding as a supernova.

These "first generation stars," Population III stars, spread their lifetime accumulation of chemicals across the universe in a supernova explosion called "Titanic." These materials participated in the formation and evolution of the next generation of stars, planets, and even us humans. This also means that to understand the history of the universe over 13.7 billion years, we must first understand how these earliest stars enriched the universe with heavy metals.

However, until now, scientists have been unable to find direct evidence of these ancient stars - Population III.

An artist's close-up of it was based on the fact that Population III stars would appear 100 million years after the Big Bang.

(Image credit: International Institute for Infrared Optical Astronomy/National Health Foundation/Association for Research in Astronomy/J. Dashiva/Space Engines)

A group of scientists discovered a galaxy-like object that emits strong light under the control of a black hole while observing with the 8.1-meter Gemini North Telescope in the Hawaiian Islands. Scientists speculate that the light came from the universe 13.1 billion years ago. They also found a mass of matter with unique chemical properties surrounding it, like a huge bubble in the universe.

Scientists used existing technology to filter and observe the chemicals in the interstellar cloud and found unusually high levels of magnesium - ten times more than the magnesium content in the sun. Astronomers believe that these fragments of the nebula may be the result of the supernova explosion of the first generation of stars. The explosion of these planets is more than 300 times the power of the sun, and the explosion is called an unstable supernova.

Astronomers have discovered one pair-instability supernova so far and have theorized that only giant stars like this one, with masses 150 to 250 times that of the Sun in its red giant state, can have such a violent explosion.

If we continue to speculate on this explosion, the photons in the star spontaneously turn into negative electrons, and form an outward radiation field with the positively charged counterparts, positrons, which people think are positively charged, and interact with the star's own gravitational field. However, this effect only exists during the life of the star. Therefore, at the end of its life cycle, the star will experience internal gravitational collapse, and its surface material will be "exploded", forming the supernova explosion we observe today.

This is an image of a relatively nearby quasar, which scientists use to study the first generation of stars.

(Image credit: International Institute for Infrared Optical Astronomy/National Health Foundation/Association for Research in Astronomy/J. Dashiva/Space Engines)

The remnants left behind by the original supernova explosion are in the shape of Newtonian galaxies or black holes. They are no longer unstable supernovae, either in appearance or function. But they are still continuously sending their matter out into the universe on an explosive scale.

This actually means that these supernovae will not be discovered by observing stellar debris. We can only observe them in two ways now: either observe them directly when they explode, or look for relics in the matter they once exploded.

"This supernova candidate is clearly a Population III pair-instability supernova, where stars exploded without leaving any debris in the past," said study co-author Yuzuru Yoshii, an astronomer in Tokyo. "I am both pleased and somewhat surprised to find that this pair-instability supernova has 300 times the mass of magnesium or iron in the Sun, because our standards for the value derived from quasars are so low."

Chemical remains of first-generation stars discovered

Yoshii, in collaboration with Tokyo astronomer Shota Sakurai and University of Notre Dame astronomer Timothy Beale, turned to the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope to pick up signs of Population III supernovae. Because they absorb elements and emit a specific wavelength of light, they leave their fingerprints every time they pass through an interstellar dust cloud or a new planet's atmosphere. By picking up these traces of light and identifying them, spectrometers like the one at the center of the Gemini North telescope can tell the chemical composition of the interstellar cloud. However, judging the amount of an element has been difficult since it has been shown that the brightness of an observed object depends not only on its amount but also on its level.

This is a close-up of a distant planet 300 times more massive than our sun exploding as a supernova. (Image credit: International Institute for Infrared Optical Astronomy/National Health Foundation/Associated Astronomical Research Association/J. Dashiva/Space Engines

Professors at the University of Tokyo solved this problem by measuring the intensity of light waves emitted by quasars across the spectrum. This method inspired other scientists in the same field to solve the mystery of the rich materials contained in the interstellar clouds around quasars. In the end, more iron in the interstellar clouds overturned the original theory that there was more iron.

Yoshii and his team believe this is the clearest indication yet of Population III and pair-instability supernovae. Next, their team aims to find similar quasar clouds and explore whether they play these roles.

Although these massive Population III stars may have died long ago, their spectacular explosions can only be seen from equally distant locations, where their explosive evolution is visible to the naked eye even from where local residents live. The research team speculates that this pair-instability feature may persist for a long time, so these stars that died many years ago can find evidence of their existence in that area.

"We know what we are looking for now, and we have the way," Beers said. "It happened in these places a long time ago, and we are almost certain that it happened there. What we need to do is find evidence for it." The team's research results have been selected for the arxiv paper library and will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

BY:Robert Lea

FY:E-Orange

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