Interesting Facts about Population III, the Oldest Star in Space

JAKARTA – Scientists continue to study the facts about Population III stars. The oldest star is said to be able to reveal the mysteries of the universe.

Launching ScienceAlert, Sunday (17/3/2024), this star is around 35,000 light years from Earth and is still in the Milky Way galaxy. Population III stars that formed in the early universe were formed from hydrogen and helium.

Here are the facts about Population III stars:

1. Star Size Population III

It is very massive in size, very hot, and short-lived. This star is relatively free of metal. This star is generally relatively far from the time the earth was born and closer to when the universe began to form. Its size is considered giant with a hot temperature 100 times that of the sun. On average, first generation stars were 100 to 1,000 times larger than the Sun.

2. Nuclear energy source

The source of star energy comes from nuclear fusion, or when the atomic nuclei of light elements combine to make other, larger elements.

In small stars, hydrogen usually combines which then turns into helium. However, in larger stars such as Population III stars, heavy elements such as silicon and iron can form. This star is now at the end of his life. The red color and size indicate its activity using its last hydrogen reserves before fusing helium.

Then, when these massive stars experienced supernovae or powerful explosions, these elements spread into the universe. These elements then enter the newly formed star. From there it can be seen that the metal content of a star is an indicator of their age.

The experts used infrared spectrograph data from one of the very distant quasars. The quasar’s light had circulated in space for 13.1 billion years before reaching Earth.

Experts are looking at quasars, as they were when the universe was only 700 million years old. A spectrograph is an instrument that captures flashes of light on objects outer space into wave components.

3. Give birth to stars

According to astronomers, the star named SMSS J160540.18–144323.1 is one of the first stars to appear after Population III experienced a supernova. From this process, audiences can understand how the universe began to form.

The report on the results of this research was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on July 17 2019. “This is a star with a low iron content. It probably formed only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang,” said research leader, Thomas Nordlander.

(msf)