Finding
the ashes of the first stars...
Recent observations with the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the
first
stars formed as little as 200 million years after the Big Bang. This is
much
earlier than previously thought. Astronomers have observed large
amounts
of iron in the ultraluminous light from very distant, ancient quasars.
This
iron is the 'ashes' left from supernova explosions in the very first
generation
of stars. Go here
for the full report. Go here for the
scientific
paper (published in the 2003
April 20 Astrophysical
Journal Letters).
Articles about this work were also published in (some links are
obsolete):
Other on-line media outlets where this work has been reported (many are
mirrors,
some have been since archived, disconnected or otherwise obsolete):
The original press
release from STECF/ESA and all of the above (except the Astronomy
Picture
of the Day) were unsolicited by the investigators. In the case of APOD,
we
considered the artistic rendition of the immediate environs of a high
redshift
quasar in a forming massive galaxy sufficiently impressive to merit a
possible
appearance there.
Kirk T. Korista
Professor of Astronomy
Department of Physics
Western Michigan University
email: kirk.korista@wmich.edu
last updated: 13 June 2008
