Did You Know That The First Stars in Our Universe May Have Been 100,000 Times the Mass of the Sun?

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.