100,000 Times the Mass of Our Sun? The First Stars to Exist Were Big!

And scientists might finally know how they began twinkling.

Transcript

00:00Our sun is the biggest thing in the solar system by a long shot, but when compared to

00:08other stars, it's actually quite small.

00:10However, when the universe was first beginning and the first stars twinkled into existence,

00:14new research finds those were likely in another league altogether.

00:17Using new computer models which simulate the act of cold accretion, a phenomenon where

00:21stars might come together quickly while remaining at a relatively low and constant temperature,

00:25so as to be able to collapse upon themselves and ignite into stars.

00:29It's one of those cosmic events that was difficult to explain, but in the early days

00:32of the universe, subsections of space featuring large areas of cold yet dense matter could

00:36form an accretion disk at the center of those giant globs of material.

00:40And according to the new computer simulation, when that happens, a shockwave emerges and

00:44forces an instant collapse of that matter.

00:46But what's really interesting?

00:47This process, which protostars likely went through, can produce giant burning balls of

00:51gas 100,000 times the mass of our own sun.

00:54Meaning in the early days of the starlit universe, supermassive stars may have been the norm.

00:59Now we just have to look back in time with the James Webb Space Telescope to hopefully

01:02find evidence to confirm it.