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Ancient, Ultra Metal-Poor Star Gives Insight Into Early Years Of Universe

By R. Siva Kumar | Update Date: Jan 24, 2016 06:44 PM EST

One ultra metal-poor star with the interesting name of 2MASS J18082002-5104378 has been found by a team of the University of Notre Dame. Two of the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Chile telescopes were used for the discovery.

This is brightest of its kind, and would also help to give an insight into the early years of the universe, says a press release.

This is a leftover from the Milky Way's early years. At first, it was seen two years ago by the ESO's New Technology Telescope, leading to observations by the Very Large Telescope.

It is called an ultra metal-poor star due to the low level of metals, unlike the younger stars like the sun.

Metal-poor stars were abundant earlier but are not common now. Their metals are formed during nuclear fusion within the stars, after which they travel through the interstellar medium, touch old age and then explode.

These metal-poor stars are born from the unpolluted environment immediately after the Big Bang. Hence, an analysis of the star could give us an insight into the early secrets of the earth.

The study was published in the Jan. 7,2016 issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics.

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