By Staff Reporter (media@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Nov 12, 2015 05:40 AM EST
Tags Milky Way, stars, OLD STARS, EXPLODING STARS, HYPERNOVA, Supernova, space, SKYMAPPER TELESCOPE, THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, Milky Way galaxy, NATURE JOURNAL, AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY'S ANGLO-AUSTRALIAN TELESCOPE

A new study has been released in the journal Nature claiming that astronomers have discovered a few of the oldest stars near the Milky Way. The scientists used the Australian National University's (ANU) SkyMapper telescope.

According to the study published online November 11, the stars have been in existence even before the Milk Way was formed. They added that at the time, the universe was just 300 million years old.

"These pristine stars are among the oldest surviving stars in the Universe, and certainly the oldest stars we have ever seen," according to the study's lead author, Louise Howes, in a news release.

"These stars formed before the Milky Way and the galaxy formed around them," he added.

The oldest stars near the Milky Way, they are also reported to be extremely rare and almost impossible to discover in the Milky Way center.

According to Professor Martin Asplund, the project leader at ANU's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, since the Milky Way center has billions of stars, finding the oldest stars is like finding a needle in a haystack.

It was because of the ANU SkyMapper telescope, which has the ability to see anaemic stars' (stars with small amounts of iron) distinct colors, that the researchers were able to find the oldest stars, Asplund added.

According to CBS News, after the scientists used the SkyMapper to find the more than 14,000 extremely anemic stars, they then utilized the Australian Astronomical Observatory's Anglo-Australian Telescope to determine whether the stars were anemic, or extremely poor in metal content.

The new research reveals new data on the physical conditions of the universe's early ages, during which time the oldest stars were formed as well. The newly found, old stars had the same material from an older star that died of a hypernova explosion, according to Science World Report.

Researchers say that the hypernova explosions are extraordinarily powerful explosions that could have possibly dominated the Milky Way during its early ages.

According to Howes, only one-third of the Milky Way's bulge had been analysed by the scientists. Durin future research, it is possible to analyze the rest of the bulge seen by the astronomers, and therefore learn more on metal-poor stars.

"The stars have surprisingly low levels of carbon, iron and other heavy elements, which suggests the first stars might not have exploded as normal supernovae," Howes said.

"Perhaps they ended their lives as hypernovae - poorly understood explosions of probably rapidly rotating stars producing 10 times as much energy as normal supernovae," he added.

Check out photos below.

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