2024-08-01 06:00:02
First-generation stars transformed the Universe by fusing hydrogen and helium into more complex elements. The recent discovery of a second-generation star in a nearby galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, sheds light on the initial formation of elements in galaxies other than the Milky Way.
Credit: NASA/JPL
Inaccessible to direct observation, the first generation stars (also called population III stars) left traces in the following generation of stars. Anirudh Chiti, specialist in archaeology stellarfound a star of second generation, formed after the first stars, but before the accumulation of heavy elements.
Anirudh Chiti and his team explored the Large Magellanic Cloud to track down these ancient stars. Using the satellite Gaia and the telescope Magellan, they catalogued ten very old stars, including one particularly poor in heavy elements, a sign of its formation after the first stellar generation.
This singular star has a significantly lower amount of carbon relative to iron than stars in the Milky Way, suggesting different formation processes. This calls into question the universality of the carbon enrichment observed in our galaxy.
The results also show that the Large Magellanic Cloud formed far fewer stars in its early days than the Milky Way. Chiti plans to map the southern sky to find more of these ancient stars, opening up new avenues for stellar archaeology.
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