A chemical signature of first-generation very massive stars

Abstract

How huge early stars enriched the universe How big did the first generation of stars get? Knowing their size is critical to understanding how they enriched the chemistry of the universe through supernova explosions. According to numerical simulations, some of the earliest stars were more than 100 times the Sun's mass. However, no traces of these live-fast, die-young stars had been detected in any low-mass stars still extant from that era. Aoki et al. now show spectra of one such metal-poor star that may have recorded the activity of a very massive predecessor (see the Perspective by Bromm). This observational evidence will spur further supernova models, as none predicts this specific chemical signature. Science , this issue p. 912 ; see also p. 868