Supercomputer solves mystery of mass of first stars
Just after the Big Bang, only hydrogen and helium exist. In the earliest stages of the universe, crucial building blocks for life, such as carbon and oxygen, had yet to appear. About 200 million years later, the first stars began to form.
These Population III, or Pop III, stars, as they are call, eventually gave rise to the creation of heavier elements through nuclear burning in their cores. Towards the end of their lives, some of these early stars went supernova. The powerful explosions that result spread new elements throughout the early universe, which would become the foundation for life.
The type of supernova that form at that time depend on the mass of the first star at its demise. This gave rise to different chemical patterns.
Foundation for Life
Observations of extremely metal-poor stars, which form after the first stars and their supernovae, were previously crucial for estimating the mass of the first stars. Bas on the large number of metal-poor stars, it was estimat that these first stars had a mass comparable to twelve to sixty solar masses.
Previous cosmological 2024 fresh whatsapp number list simulations, however, suggest a top-heavy and widely distribut mass of the first stars, ranging from fifty to a thousand solar masses. This large discrepancy between simulations and observations has puzzl astronomers for at least a decade.
Gap between simulation and observation
To find a solution, two scientists from Taiwan have harness the powerful supercomputer at Berkeley National Lab. They have delodajalci odpustijo zaposlene iz succe in developing the first ever high-resolution 3D hydrodynamic simulation of the turbulent star-forming clouds that prec the first stars.
Are remarkable: supersonic turbulence, or extreme chaotic movements, caus the star-forming clouds to break up into several bwb directory clusters, each with a dense core of 22 to 175 solar masses. From these, the first stars were form with a mass of 8 to 58 solar masses, which does correspond to the observations.
