News Astronomy

The earliest evidence of the first stars may lie in a distant gas clump

The candidate system appears chemically pristine just 450 million years after the Big Bang

An illustration shows early galaxies filled with bright stars and surrounded by wispy clouds of gas.

The universe’s first stars (illustrated) may have shone brightly.

NASA, STScI, A. Schaller

By Mara Johnson-Groh

There’s a new contender for the universe’s earliest first-generation stars.

A bright clump seen about 450 million years after the Big Bang has the chemical hallmarks of first-generation stars — notably that it appears to have no elements heavier than helium.