An international team, including researchers from the Center for Astronomy of Heidelberg University (ZAH), found three "space Methuselah" of the early years of the universe. This unusual stars about 13 billion years, and experts attribute them to the first generation of stars after the "Dark Ages."
The chemical properties of these extremely rare celestial bodies will take a fresh look at the events that have led to the origins of stars. The first star is considered to be extremely massive and particularly bright. However, recent observations indicate a hitherto unknown phenomenon in the young universe, promoting the emergence of smaller stars.

The three original stars were discovered through observations of the Paris Observatory, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Piercarlo Bonifacio (Piercarlo Bonifacio). In addition to hydrogen and helium, they contain very small amounts of other chemical elements, it relates to an amazing amount of carbon. Astronomer Dr. Molar Paolo (Paolo Molaro) of the Trieste Observatory suspects that they belong to a special, completely new, original class of stars. The program of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile to observe such objects was started by Dr. Elisabetta Kaffal (Elisabetta Caffau). In order to be able to determine the frequency of extremely weak elements with great accuracy, the researchers used computer simulations of stellar atmospheres.

Researchers studying the events that influence the formation of the first stars, said that carbon plays an important role in the early universe as a "coolant" conducive to the transformation of the interstellar gas in the star. The better the cooling, the smaller stars, which can be formed. However, even with the carbon first stars must be ten times more mass than the newly discovered candidates. Perhaps interstellar dust has a cooling environment conducive to the formation of low-mass stars, the researchers said.

However, there is one puzzling question. Three newly discovered stars do not show any traces of lithium, although it is a chemical element is also contained in the feed gas. This is another mystery, awaiting its clues.

Source mater infuture!