* Astronomy

Missing Primitive Stars Outside Milky Way Uncovered

After years of successful concealment, the most primitive stars outside our Milky Way galaxy have finally been unmasked. New observations using ESO's Very Large Telescope have been used to solve an important astrophysical puzzle concerning the oldest stars in our galactic neighbourhood - which is crucial for our understanding of the earliest stars in the Universe.

"We have, in effect, found a flaw in the forensic methods used until now. Our improved approach allows us to uncover the primitive stars hidden among all the other, more common stars" - Else Starkenburg, lead author of the paper reporting the study.

Primitive stars are thought to have formed from material forged shortly after the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago. They typically have less than one thousandth the amount of chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium found in the Sun and are called "extremely metal-poor stars". They belong to one of the first generations of stars in the nearby Universe. Such stars are extremely rare and mainly observed in the Milky Way.

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