Astronomers May Have Found the First Stars that Formed After the Big Bang

Astronomers may have found the first stars that formed after the Big Bang

For years, astronomers have been on the hunt for the first generation of stars, primordial relics of the early universe. And now they may have just found them. Ari Visbal from the University of Toledo, Ohio and colleagues believe they've glimpsed so-called Population III (Pop III) stars following a detailed analysis of previous James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of a distant galaxy called LAP1-B.

We may have found a surprisingly nearby cluster of primordial stars

The very first generation of stars, called Population III stars, are mostly expected to be too distant to see directly – but astronomers may have found some for the very first time

Extremely massive stars forged the oldest star clusters in the universe

A Remarkably Tight Cluster of Protostars Likely Discovered

Artist’s rendition of a Population III star that existed 100 million years after the Big Bang Noir Lab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Space Engine/M. Zamani We may have finally observed the first generation of stars. After decades of searching for these pristine giants, known as Population III stars, astronomers have found their most promising candidate yet. Population III [...] The post A Remarkably Tight Cluster of Protostars Likely Discovered appeared …