Three alien stars circling the Milky Way could be some of the oldest ever found in the universe, a new study reveals. The ancient celestial objects may have been among the first to form after the Big Bang and were likely stolen by our galaxy during gravitational tugs-of-war billions of years ago.
The ancient balls of gas, which researchers have dubbed Small Accreted Stellar System stars, are"part of our cosmic family tree," study senior author Anna Frebel, a stellar astrophysicist at MIT, said in a statement. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.This revealed the stellar trio, which each had an unusually low abundance of heavy metals such as iron, strontium and barium in its atmosphere. For example, one of the stars had around 10,000 times less iron than the sun.
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