TapTechNews, May 11th - A research team from the University of Hong Kong has recently proposed a new method for detecting the first generation of stars, known as Population III stars, which has gained widespread recognition in the international astronomical community. NASA has highly appreciated this approach and will utilize the Roman Space Telescope to undertake the search.
TapTechNews notes: Population III stars, born in the very first million years post the Big Bang (about 1% of the universe's age), are crucial for modern astronomy as they play a decisive role in establishing the initial mass function (IMF), which further influences the evolution of the entire universe.
The life span of Population III stars is extremely short; they rapidly deplete after their formation. Thus, we cannot observe these stars directly. However, by observing the baryonic metal substances they eject, we can detect potential remnants of Population III stars, thereby constraining the IMF and Big Bang nucleosynthesis.
Led by Professor Dai Lixin, the team has proposed methods to detect Population III stars. The research indicates if a Population III star moves close to a massive black hole, it will be torn apart by the black hole's tidal forces.
In these Tidal Disruption Events (TDE), the black hole voraciously consumes the star fragments, producing very bright flares (intense bursts of light or radiation released from the galactic center).
Professor Dai's research team has examined these complex physical processes involved in TDEs, proving that the radiation from these flares can travel billions of light years to reach us today.
Most importantly, they discovered that these TDE flares have unique characteristics that can be used to identify the presence of Population III stars and explore their properties.
A member of the NASA team stated that the Roman Space Telescope's panoramic view of the universe is 200 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, and it surveys the sky 1000 times faster than the James Webb Space Telescope, making it an ideal instrument to discover these early TDEs.
TapTechNews attached references:
NASA's Roman Space Telescope will hunt for the universe's 1st stars—or their shredded corpses, anyway
The University of Hong Kong astrophysicists find Population III stars through Tidal Disruption Events
Detecting Population III Stars through Tidal Disruption Events in the Era of JWST and Roman