Search Here

The stars that have recently been discovered in the middle of the Milky Way may be the oldest that the scientists have ever found. According to Louise Howes, a doctoral student from the Australian National University and lead author of the study that announced the discovery of stars, said in a statement, "These stars formed before the Milky Way, and the galaxy formed around them". Howes' research also included colleagues from the University of Cambridge that together published a journal on Wednesday. The research team was working on the stars that were poor in their elements that weakened as the universe became older. The universe, in its formative years, consisted of only hydrogen and helium with a bit of lithium that was scarcely available, reported NDTV.

According to Tech Times, as the first generation stars died, since they were only made of hydrogen, they produced new elements for the new stars to take in its life-cycle. The researchers found 23 stars in the Milky Way and enough metal-poor to incite further interest. 9 of these stars had metal content 1/1000^th time less than the amount that is seen in the sun. The poorest of the lot was the one that reported metal 1/10,000^th of the content found in the sun.

Based on earlier research, the first new stars would have formed some 100 million years before than the ones that were found the study. As a matter of fact, the new stars that were just recently discovered show greater evidence of belonging to the second generation as they contain remarkably low levels of carbon and iron, suggesting that these stars may have been formed from the left over material followed by a massive explosion known as the hypernova, as reported by NDTV.