A view of HE 1327–2326 — a field of ancient second generation stars created from elements laid down by supernova explosions of the Universe’s earliest stars (Frebel)

Powerful jets erupted from the Universe’s earliest stars — dispersing the seeds of future stars

The first generation of stars exploded into supernovas dispersing elements from which later stars formed, new research suggests.

Hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, the very first stars flared into the universe as massively bright accumulations of hydrogen and helium gas. Within their cores, extremely powerful thermonuclear reactions forged the first heavier elements — such as carbon, iron, and zinc.

These first stars were likely immense, short-lived fireballs, and until now scientists have assumed that they exploded as similarly spherical supernovae.

Anna Frebel, an associate professor of physics at MIT and a member of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and MIT postdoc Rana Ezzeddine suspect these assumptions were incorrect.

Rana Ezzeddine and Anna Frebel of MIT have observed evidence that the first stars in the universe exploded as an asymmetric supernova, strong enough to scatter heavy elements such as zinc across the early universe. (Melanie Gonick)

In fact, they have found that these first stars may have blown apart in a more powerful, asymmetric fashion — spewing forth jets violent enough to eject heavy elements into neighbouring galaxies…