Scientists are peering into the depths of space, looking back to the early days of the universe, and they’ve discovered something very interesting indeed.
Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope have made a discovery that suggests some of the earliest stars ever formed in the universe were 10,000 times more massive than the Sun.
„Today, thanks to data collected by the James-Webb Space Telescope, we believe we have found the first clue to the existence of these unusual stars,” says Corinne Charbonnel, an astrophysicist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Astronomy & Astrophysics.
These features are large collections of between 100,000 and 1 million stars called globular clusters, all of which have similar properties. Scientists estimate that they all evolved at the same time.
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They are remnants of the ancient universe and have been described as „fossils” by researchers.
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The cores of these stars were much hotter than what we see in stars today, and the scientists suggest that this may have resulted in more hydrogen burning at higher temperatures.
Smaller stars are thought to have collided with much smaller stars and absorbed their energy. However, now most of these global clusters are nearing the end of their lifespan.
„Globular clusters are 10 to 13 billion years old, whereas superstars have a maximum lifespan of two million years,” said Mark Keels, formerly of the University of Surrey but now of the University of Barcelona in 2018. „
The researcher says: „If future studies can confirm the supermassive star scenario, it will provide an important step with many important implications for our understanding of globular clusters and the formation of supermassive stars in general.”
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