First Generation of Stars Discovered in the Brightest Galaxy of the Early Universe

First Posted: Jun 17, 2015 07:10 AM EDT
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A new image may reveal the existence of a first generation of stars far from our home galaxy. While researchers have long theorized the existence of this first generation, called Population III stars, they haven't seen them-until now.

The researchers used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to peer back into the ancient universe to a period known as reionization. This occurred approximately 800 million years after the Big Bang. Instead of conducting a narrow and deep study of a small area of the sky, though, they broadened their scope to produce the widest survey of very distant galaxies ever attempted.

With this new effort, the scientists discovered a number of surprisingly bright very young galaxies. One of these, called CR7, was an exceptionally rare object; it was the brightest galaxy ever seen at this stage in the universe.

While these findings were exciting, the researchers went further and also analyzed the galaxies. They found that there was no sign of any heavier elements in a bright pocket in the CR7 galaxy. This meant that the scientists had found the first evidence for clusters of Population III stars that had ionized gas within a galaxy in the early universe.

"The discovery challenged our expectations from the start, as we didn't expect to find such a bright galaxy," said David Sobral, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Then, by unveiling the nature of CR7 piece by piece, we understood that not only had we found by far the most luminous distant galaxy, but also started to realize that it had every single characteristic expected of Population III stars. Those stars were the ones that formed the first heavy atoms that ultimately allowed us to be here. It doesn't really get any more exciting than this."

The findings reveal a bit more about our early universe. It also provides the best evidence yet of these Population III stars. Currently, the researchers are making further observations to better understand and hunt for more of these stars.

The findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.

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