Population III stars discovered?

[sjastro]

​

For the Dr Becky fan club her summation of the story.

 

[AlexB23]

​

For the Dr Becky fan club her summation of the story.

As a tweenage kid in the early 2010s, I had plenty of astronomy books, and the books said that Population III stars are hypothetical. Now, 10+ years later, we have found these stars? Pop III stars have far less metal inside their atmospheres compared to Population I stars such as our sun, as metals have not yet been formed in the early universe.


This is the video summary, for those with little time to spare (I looked at the video CC transcript, cos I was impatient to learn, cos science is cool):

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) aims to find evidence of the first stars that formed in the universe, known as Population III stars. These stars are significant as they produced the first heavy elements and caused the re-ionization of the universe. Recently, researchers led by Maiolino have claimed to find evidence of Population III stars in a far away galaxy with the weird alphanumeric name of GN-z11. Before JWST's launch, the GN-z11 was the most distant galaxy known, with light taking 13.3 billion years to reach us. Researchers analyzed data from JWST and discovered a clump of helium gas glowing at a particular wavelength, indicating intense heat and ionization by something very energetic. This helium clump is located near GGN-z11 but not within it, suggesting it could be due to Population III stars or a growing supermassive black hole. However, models show that the energy emitted from a growing black hole would decrease rapidly with distance, making it unlikely. Therefore, the researchers believe Population III stars are ionizing the helium clump. If true, this would be the first direct evidence of these ancient stars. Further observations and analyses are needed to confirm this discovery.

 

[SelfSim]

Now look .. The only way anyone can prove these things exist, is by using a time machine and going back in time to witness their formation .. and because we all know time machines can't possibly exist ....

(Hang on a minute! .. JWST! .. .. Hmm .. I know! Its trickery!)

 

[AlexB23]

Now look .. The only way anyone can prove these things exist, is by using a time machine and going back in time to witness their formation .. and because we all know time machines can't possibly exist ....

(Hang on a minute! .. JWST! .. )

That is true. An object at a distance of 4.25 light-years (distance from Earth to Proxima Centauri, the second closest star), would appear to us as it was in January 2020, as 4.25 years ago was January 2020. Ooh, nice how the numbers work out to that. So, light from Proxima Centauri that is visible on Earth was emitted from the surface of that star at the beginning of the current decade.

An object located 10 billion light-years away would appear to us, as it appeared 10 billion years ago.

 

[sjastro]

As a tweenage kid in the early 2010s, I had plenty of astronomy books, and the books said that Population III stars are hypothetical. Now, 10+ years later, we have found these stars? Pop III stars have far less metal inside their atmospheres compared to Population I stars such as our sun, as metals have not yet been formed in the early universe.


This is the video summary, for those with little time to spare (I looked at the video CC transcript, cos I was impatient to learn, cos science is cool):

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) aims to find evidence of the first stars that formed in the universe, known as Population III stars. These stars are significant as they produced the first heavy elements and caused the re-ionization of the universe. Recently, researchers led by Maiolino have claimed to find evidence of Population III stars in a far away galaxy with the weird alphanumeric name of GN-z11. Before JWST's launch, the GN-z11 was the most distant galaxy known, with light taking 13.3 billion years to reach us. Researchers analyzed data from JWST and discovered a clump of helium gas glowing at a particular wavelength, indicating intense heat and ionization by something very energetic. This helium clump is located near GGN-z11 but not within it, suggesting it could be due to Population III stars or a growing supermassive black hole. However, models show that the energy emitted from a growing black hole would decrease rapidly with distance, making it unlikely. Therefore, the researchers believe Population III stars are ionizing the helium clump. If true, this would be the first direct evidence of these ancient stars. Further observations and analyses are needed to confirm this discovery.

As a teenager my interest in astronomy was piqued after my parents bought me a small telescope.

Population III stars do not contain metals which using the astronomical terminology is any element heavier than helium; they are formed using primaeval hydrogen and helium from just after the Big Bang.

Incidentally our Sun has iron in its atmosphere which could not have been formed in the core as it is not massive enough which is fortunate as the earth would have been wiped out by a supernova.
It indicates the Sun was formed from the supernova remnants from other stars.

 

[AlexB23]

As a teenager my interest in astronomy was piqued after my parents bought me a small telescope.

Population III stars do not contain metals which using the astronomical terminology is any element heavier than helium; they are formed using primaeval hydrogen and helium from just after the Big Bang.

Incidentally our Sun has iron in its atmosphere which could not have been formed in the core as it is not massive enough which is fortunate as the earth would have been wiped out by a supernova.
It indicates the Sun was formed from the supernova remnants from other stars.

Nice. I had a small telescope, but it needed batteries to align with the stars (Mead brand), and it kept eating through batteries, so I gave it away to some neighbor kids. Yeah, our sun was formed by supernova remnants, as supernova form metals above with higher proton counts compared to iron (Fe, P = 26). Lithium is the first metal on the periodic table, and only existed after Pop III stars died.

 

[sjastro]

Now look .. The only way anyone can prove these things exist, is by using a time machine and going back in time to witness their formation .. and because we all know time machines can't possibly exist ....

(Hang on a minute! .. JWST! .. .. Hmm .. I know! Its trickery!)

Any event that happened in the past which was not witnessed whether it was 5 minutes or 14 billion years ago "technically" requires a time machine.
I wonder if our anti-science creationist friends are dismissive of forensic science in solving crimes where there were no witnesses.

 

[AlexB23]

Any event that happened in the past which was not witnessed whether it was 5 minutes or 14 billion years ago "technically" requires a time machine.
I wonder if our anti-science creationist friends are dismissive of forensic science in solving crimes where there were no witnesses.

The anti-science folks probably dismiss science, unless it helps one's own cause, sadly. Such as the science (thermodynamics) that makes one's car or pickup truck run.

I wish that all Christians understood that science is not our enemy, in fact, it can be used to prove how awesome God's Creation is.

 

[sjastro]

Nice. I had a small telescope, but it needed batteries to align with the stars (Mead brand), and it kept eating through batteries, so I gave it away to some neighbor kids. Yeah, our sun was formed by supernova remnants, as supernova form metals above with higher proton counts compared to iron (Fe, P = 26). Lithium is the first metal on the periodic table, and only existed after Pop III stars died.

I'm probably showing my age but my first telescope was acquired at a time when Meade probably didn't exist; it was a 2.5" Tasco model.
From there I progressed to a 10" Newtonian and when I became interested in astrophotography I purchased a 5" Celestron C5 (the equatorial mount was used as an example of refuting various flat earth threads) and an 11" Celestron C11.

The next telescope was a disaster a 14.5" piece of **deleted** which led me to suing the manufacturer and a drawn out legal battle ensured as the manufacturer refused to honour the warranty and accused me of voiding it.
I knew one of the observatory engineers who are astronomers and experts in optical design at the Anglo-Australian observatory and hoped he would be an expert witness in court but there was a conflict of interest as he had been involved in testing for the manufacturer.
It was finally settled out of court after one of the lead astronomers at the observatory was prepared to be an expert witness.

I finally settled on a 10" BRC telescope for my astrophotography work, a wonderful Japanese telescope of excellent quality.

 

[AlexB23]

I'm probably showing my age but my first telescope was acquired at a time when Meade probably didn't exist; it was a 2.5" Tasco model.
From there I progressed to a 10" Newtonian and when I became interested in astrophotography I purchased a 5" Celestron C5 (the equatorial mount was used as an example of refuting various flat earth threads) and an 11" Celestron C11.

The next telescope was a disaster a 14.5" piece of **deleted** which led me to suing the manufacturer and a drawn out legal battle ensured as the manufacturer refused to honour the warranty and accused me of voiding the warranty.
I knew one of the observatory engineers who are astronomers and experts in optical design at the Anglo-Australian observatory and hoped he would be an expert witness in court but there was a conflict of interest as he had been involved in testing for the manufacturer.
It was finally settled out of court after one of the lead astronomers at the observatory was prepared to be an expert witness.

I finally settled on a 10" BRC telescope for my astrophotography work, a wonderful Japanese telescope of excellent quality.

Sorry for your bad experiences with telescopes. Well hey, at least you ended up with a good telescope. The Japanese make good products such as cars, electronics and cameras (and classic anime such as Cowboy Bebop which is my avatar).

Also, Meade was founded in 1972: Our Story | Meade.com Telescopes, Solar Telescopes, Binoculars, Spotting Scopes