19 Sep Anaemic star carries the mark of its ancient ancestor
Australian-led astronomers find probably the most star that is iron-poor the Galaxy, hinting at the nature of the first stars within the Universe.
A newly discovered ancient star containing a record-low amount of iron carries proof of a class of even older stars, long hypothesised but assumed to possess vanished.
In a paper published into the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, researchers led by Dr Thomas Nordlander associated with ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) confirm the presence of an ultra-metal-poor giant that is red, located in the halo associated with Milky Way, on the reverse side for the Galaxy about 35,000 light-years from Earth.
Dr Nordlander, through the Australian National University (ANU) node of ASTRO 3D, along with colleagues from Australia, the united states and Europe, located the star with the university’s dedicated SkyMapper Telescope in the Siding Spring s Observatory in NSW.
Spectroscopic analysis indicated that an iron was had by the star content of only one part per 50 billion.
“That’s like one drop of water in an Olympic swimming pool,” explains Dr Nordlander.
“This incredibly anaemic star, which likely formed just a couple hundred million years after the major Bang, has iron levels 1.5 million times lower than compared to the Sun.”
Ab muscles stars that are first the Universe are thought to own consisted of only hydrogen and helium, along side traces of lithium. These elements were created when you look at the immediate aftermath for the Big Bang, while all heavier elements have emerged through the heat and pressure of cataclysmic supernovae – titanic explosions of stars.