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Astronomy

Relic of the dawn of time

Nature volume 419, pages 886–887 (2002)Cite this article

Elements heavier than helium are synthesized in stars. But could there be stars, created soon after the Big Bang, that contain almost no heavy elements? The discovery of such a star gives new clues to this early time.

For half a century, astronomers have known that the elements of the periodic table are produced in stars1. The chemical enrichment of the Galaxy has proceeded from an early state with very low amounts of 'metals' (elements heavier than helium) to the present epoch, in which metals make up some 2–3% of the visible mass of the Milky Way2. This realization led to the quest for 'population III' — stars containing no metals, or, at least, such a small quantity of heavy elements as to be insignificant. These stars3 would be relics from very early in Galactic history, before star formation and evolution polluted the primordial gas with metals. After decades of searching, such a star may have been found, as Christlieb et al.4 report on page 904 of this issue.

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Figure 1: The Galactic disk.

E. L. WRIGHT/COBE/DIRBE/NASA

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  1. Department of Astronomy, Indiana University, Bloomington, 47405, Indiana, USA

    Catherine A. Pilachowski

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  1. Catherine A. Pilachowski
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Correspondence to Catherine A. Pilachowski.

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Pilachowski, C. Relic of the dawn of time. Nature 419, 886–887 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/419886a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/419886a

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