First stars were spinning tops
APR 28, 2011
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.025264
Science : The first stars, formed about 300 million years after the Big Bang, are thought to have been hundreds of times bigger than the Sun. According to a new study, they also whirled at incredible speeds of about 500 km/s—250 times faster than the Sun does. While it is unlikely that those stars could be detected directly, the velocity of their rotation probably led to their ending their lives with a gamma-ray burst (GRB), which produces a huge flash of high-energy radiation. GRBs can be detected from much farther away than individual stars. NASA is considering a small explorer mission; its Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite could give astronomers the means to observe GRBs created by primordial stars in their final moments.
© 2011 American Institute of Physics
