这颗新发现的恒星可能存在于宇宙诞生之初

这颗新发现的恒星可能存在于宇宙诞生之初

No one visits the red giant any more.

没有人再去拜访红巨人了。

Tucked away in the Milky Way, some 35,000 light-years from Earth, this star is in the late stages of its existence. Sure, it's puffed up and extremely bright, but it's likely heaving its final hydrogen sigh.

这颗恒星隐藏在银河系中，距离地球约35,000光年，处于其存在的晚期。当然，它膨胀起来，非常明亮，但它很可能发出最后一声氢叹息。

In the final stages of their existence, stars become bright-burning 'red giants'. (Photo: Raymond Cassel/Shutterstock)

When it does, the star — dubbed SMSS J160540.18–144323.1 — will start burning through its helium stores before retiring into the fabric of space.

届时，这颗被命名为SMSS J160540.18-144323.1的恒星将在进入太空之前开始燃烧氦存储。

But if anyone could tell us a story or two about the universe, it's this very extensively named star.

但如果有人能给我们讲一两个关于宇宙的故事，那就是这颗被广泛命名的恒星。

In fact, the newly discovered star may have been born just a few hundred million years after the universe came into existence some 13.8 billion years ago — making it one of the oldest celestial bodies ever analyzed. An international team of astronomers led by by Thomas Nordlander from the Australian National University described the discovery in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

事实上，这颗新发现的恒星可能是在宇宙138亿年前形成后几亿年后诞生的，这使得它成为有史以来分析过的最古老的天体之一。由澳大利亚国立大学的Thomas Nordlander领导的一个国际天文学家小组在《皇家天文学会月刊》上描述了这一发现。

Even more fascinating, the ancient beacon may bear traces of stars that have long since come and gone. The true elders of the cosmos, those stars likely contained just hydrogen and helium — the lightest elements on the periodic table — and no metals at all. So when those massive original stars died — and they likely had short lives — they didn't go supernova, but experienced an even more incredibly energetic demise dubbed hypernova.

更让人着迷的是，这个古老的灯塔上可能有星星的痕迹，这些星星早已来去匆匆。宇宙真正的长者，那些恒星可能只含有氢和氦——元素周期表上最轻的元素——而没有任何金属。因此，当那些巨大的原始恒星死亡时——它们的寿命可能很短——它们并没有变成超新星，而是经历了一场更令人难以置信的能量消亡，被称为超级新星。

Until now, their existence has been entirely hypothetical. But as a rare second-generation star, SMSS J160540.18–144323.1 may have picked up some of the DNA of its ancestors when it formed. And while the elder stars are likely long gone, they may have passed down their stories, in the form of their elements, to the next generation.

到目前为止，它们的存在完全是假设。但是作为一颗罕见的第二代恒星，SMSS J160540.18-144323.1可能在它的祖先形成时就已经获得了一些DNA。虽然古老的恒星可能早已消失，但它们可能已经将自己的故事以元素的形式传递给下一代。

According to the Big Bang theory, the universe began some 13.8 billion years ago. (Photo: FlashMovie/Shutterstock)

Like a dying red dwarf some 35,000 light-years away.

就像35,000光年外一颗垂死的红矮星。

"The good news is that we can study the first stars through their children," study co-author Martin Asplund notes. "The stars that came after them like the one we've discovered."

“好消息是，我们可以通过第一颗恒星的孩子来研究它们，”研究报告的合著者马丁·阿斯普朗德指出。“就像我们发现的那颗一样，它们后面的星星。”