Three ancient stars about 13 billion years old were discovered by an international team of astronomers. The latest findings challenged previous beliefs in the study of stellar origin.
Astronomers discovered three ancient stars dubbed as "cosmic Methusalems". These first stars were born after the universe's "dark ages" or shortly after the big bang, according to the team at Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University.
New data on these stars' chemical qualities gave evidence that past theories on the origin of stars were wrong.
Previously, it was believed that the earliest stars were extremely luminous and very dense - from 10 to 100 times more than the sun's mass.
These characteristics were a result of the presence of helium, hydrogen and lithium, referred to as original gasses. In fact, the oldest known star SM0313, which is 13.6 billion years old, contained mostly helium and hydrogen and only small amounts of lithium and carbon, Extreme Tech reported.
The newly discovered stars, however, contained surprising amounts of carbon apart from helium and hydrogen. Carbon acted as a cooling agent that brought forth the formation of much smaller stars in clusters.
Moreover, the first stars exploded into supernovae only after a few million years of existence. This explosion was not as violent as previously believed, according to Professor Ralf Klessen of the Star Formation Group.
Another surprise finding was the absence of lithium traces in the ancient stars. Professor Klessen's team, together with the Rome observatory team, hopes to crack the mystery by studying the data in detail. They expect to gain new insights to the origin of stars.