Nearby galaxy may be one of first formed

Nature : Segue 1 is a very small galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Although it appears to have just a few hundred stars, it is detectable because it’s relatively close. Anna Frebel of MIT and her colleagues have examined the brightest stars in Segue 1 and found only trace amounts of heavy elements such as iron. The concentrations are the lowest levels of heavy elements in any known galaxy. Because heavy elements are produced by the explosions of low-mass, long-lived stars, it is likely that the stars in Segue 1 were produced instead from material released by high-mass, short-lived stars from very early in the life of the universe. Why there are so few stars in Segue 1 is still unknown, but it could provide some insight into how galaxies form. And it is likely that there are similar galaxies farther away that we haven’t seen yet.