Back when it was still young, the universe was quite different from how it is now. Science Alert notes that astronomers have recently found out that the intricacies in the physics of the young universe made it develop huge supermassive stars that may have had a mass that is equivalent to 100,000 suns.
What Were the Universe's First Stars Like?
Currently, specialists have been unable to see how the universe's first stars came to be. This formation is thought to have occurred when the universe had a prime age of around a few hundred million years.
Nevertheless, to know more about this phenomenon, specialists utilize upgraded computer simulations to try out models of the formation of the universe's first stars.
According to Universe Today, astronomers have long-standingly wrestled with concerns regarding the typical size of the universe's first stars. There were estimates that stated that these stars may have had 100 times the mass of the sun, while others suggested that such stars may have had simple and normal sizes.
However, just recently, a research team consolidated fresh stimulations that led them to an unexpected conclusion. These simulations of theirs focused on cold accretion. In order for large stars to form, it is important for huge quantities of materials to be pulled together quickly into an extremely small volume. This also has to be done without boosting the material's temperature because materials that are warmer will collapse. Hence, it is necessary to have a heat removal method as the material quickly collapses.
Prior simulations observed how dense pockets appeared in earlier galaxies. These pockets rapidly cool down from radiation emission but need to have the necessary resolution for further evolution. Universe Today reports how the new study pushes forward by looking into the behavior of these initial cold, dense pockets.
Such simulations showed that big flows of dense and cold matter may hit an accretion disk at the matter's center. When this takes place, it results in a shockwave. Such a shockwave rapidly affects the gas' stability and prompts the large matter pockets to immediately break down.
Supermassive Stars
Such pockets could have had masses that were tens of thousands times greater than those of the sun. In certain cases, they may have been even 100,000 times heavier than the giant sun. Given how nothing could hinder their breakdown, they instantly turn into supermassive stars.
The specialists are not yet sure if such supermassive stars were indeed formed in the earlier universe. They are hopeful that more incoming observations through the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will show hints pertaining to the formation of the universe's first stars.
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