Population III Stars And The Early Universe Get A New Hypothesis

Stars and galaxies formed back in the early days of the universe,  some 13 billion years ago, were not nearly as massive as originally thought. Population III stars were not only smaller than believed, they actually formed in binary systems, that is, pairs of stars that orbit a common center, say the results of a new simulation. "For a long time the common wisdom was that these Population III stars formed alone," said Brian O'Shea, a Michigan State University assistant professor of physics and astronomy  who did the research with two colleagues. "Researchers also have believed that these stars were incredibly massive – up to 300 times the size of our own sun. Unfortunately, the observations just didn't jibe with the simulations we created." read more

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