Webb telescope may have found evidence of first stars that brought light to universe | Technology News

GN-z11 is not just special for its age and the distance at which exists, but it is also especially bright. Researchers believe the answer to the question of why the galaxy is so bright can be explained by the existence of Population III stars nestled in its outskirts. Population III are elusive stars that are made out of only hydrogen and helium, unlike our Sun, which is very metal-rich. No such stars have been definitively detected by now, but Webb telescope observations have given “tantalising evidence” for their existence.

A team of researchers observing GN-z11 found a gaseous clump of helium in the halo that surrounds the galaxy.

“The fact that we don’t see anything else beyond helium suggests that this clump must be fairly pristine. This is something that was expected by theory and simulations in the vicinity of particularly massive galaxies from these epochs — that there should be pockets of pristine gas surviving in the halo, and these may collapse and form Population III star clusters,” said Roberto Maiolino of the Cavendish Laboratory and the Kavli Institute of Cosmology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, in a press statement.

Population III stars are considered the first generation of stars and finding them is one of the most important goals of modern astrophysics, according to NASA. Scientists believe them to be very massive, very bright and very hot and also expect the presence of ionised helium and the absence of other chemical elements heavier than helium.