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04/16/2005 11:59 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Astronomers have examined a star they think was among the first created after the universe began [ link to www.space.com] Astronomers have examined a star they think was among the first created after the universe began. It is only the second known example of such a primitive object. Theorists say the universe began with the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago. For some 200,000 years, stars could not form. Then things cooled enough for knots of gas to condense into the first stars. The gas present then was raw, primordial. It was mostly hydrogen and helium, with traces of lithium, helium and deuterium. The first stars were composed of these raw materials, the thinking goes. Within the furnace of each first-generation star, heavier elements were created, then cast into the cosmos when the stars died explosively. Subsequent generations of stars created more and more heavier elements, including all the stuff that makes planets and living things. |