Space telescopes detect ancient and rare stars in the center of the galaxy

According to information from the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) research team, scientists new populations detected Ancient rare stars formed at the beginning of the Milky Way. Observations indicate that the stars slowly rotated around our galaxy’s inner galactic center and appeared a few billion years after the Big Bang.

According to the scientists’ analysis, the stars ‘lived’ nearly their entire lives in the center of the Milky Way and likely underwent turbulent star formation. Their composition consists mainly of hydrogen and helium; The researchers also point out that younger stars like the Sun have lower metal content compared to their ratios..

The researchers looked for stars in the low-density halo surrounding our galaxy, an area typically free of space dust. However, stars in this region of the Milky Way have been difficult to find, because the view of the center is often obscured by large amounts of interstellar dust from regions in the telescopes field of view.

“It’s exciting to think we’re seeing stars that appear in the very early stages of the Milky Way, which we couldn’t reach before. One of the PIGS team members, Dr. Anke Arentsen is a professor at the University of Cambridge, England.

rare stars in the Milky Way

The team says they used data collected by several telescopes, but an image filter from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Observatory (CFHT) that analyzed ancient stars. Using spectroscopic data from the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), confirmed the existence of rare stellar objects.

In addition, the scientists used data from the Gaia space mission, a space telescope of the European Space Agency (ESA). As the PIGS team explains, combining all the information has resulted in one of the most detailed observations of stars at the center of the galaxy.

“Galactic formation models suggest that the oldest stars are expected to be found in the dense interior of the Milky Way. Because our line of sight to the center of the Galaxy is blocked by a large amount of interstellar dust, and older stars are extremely rare compared to the overwhelming majority of their young peers,” the official press release from PIGS said. , it is difficult to find them in this region.