Scientists have discovered one of the oldest stars in the universe

An international team of astronomers has discovered one of the most primitive stars in terms of chemical composition — a second-generation object formed immediately after the first stars of the universe. The discovery in the Pictor II dwarf galaxy allows us to directly study the processes of early formation of chemical elements. This was reported in the magazine on March 16. Phys.org .

The discovered star PicII-503 is located in the ultra-dim dwarf galaxy Pictor II, which is more than 10 billion years old. The object turned out to be unique: its iron content is less than one forty thousandth of the solar level, which makes it the most "metal-poor" among the known stars outside the Milky Way.

At the same time, scientists have recorded an extremely high proportion of carbon, an indicator that was previously observed in ancient stars in the halo of the Milky Way, but their origin remained unclear. The new find actually closes this gap by linking such objects with ancient dwarf galaxies.

From a scientific point of view, PicII-503 is a "time capsule". Second-generation stars are formed from matter enriched by the first stars, which consisted almost exclusively of hydrogen and helium. After their supernova explosions, heavy elements were ejected into the interstellar medium, from which subsequent generations of luminaries were formed.

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According to the head of the study, Aniruda Chiti, the discovery of such an object "is on the verge of possible," given their extreme rarity. He stressed that such a low iron content makes the star a direct evidence of the processes of primary synthesis of elements in the universe.

A high proportion of carbon is of particular importance: the ratio of carbon to iron exceeds the solar value by more than 1.5 thousand times. This confirms the hypothesis that such stars were formed under the influence of so—called "weak" supernovae, low-energy explosions in which heavy elements, including iron, partially return to the remnant of the star, while light ones, such as carbon, are ejected outside.

The fact that an object was discovered in a small dwarf galaxy reinforces this theory: with a powerful explosion, substances would simply leave the gravitational field of the system. Thus, PicII-503 becomes a key proof of the scenario of early chemical evolution.

Experts note that such discoveries form the basis of "space archaeology," a field that allows us to reconstruct the first stages of the universe's development. The data obtained not only explains the origin of the ancient stars of the Milky Way, but also provides insight into the processes that eventually led to the appearance of planets and life.

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On March 3, the Science X news portal reported on the ability of living organisms to move between planets. It was clarified that they do this on the debris of asteroids. The study showed that certain bacteria can withstand the extreme pressure that occurs when ejected from Mars after an asteroid impact.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.