New research based solely on simulations shows how habitable worlds could have formed before any galaxies formed.
This artist’s impression shows the planet K2-18b, it’s host star and an accompanying planet in this system. K2-18b is now the only super-Earth exoplanet known to host both water and temperatures that could support life. Could habitable worlds like this have formed before galaxies formed? Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser
The research hinges on primordial supernovae, the first stars in the Universe to explode. These massive stars lived fast and died young in cataclysmic explosions. They peaked at about redshift 20 when population III stars, which were extremely massive, exploded as. Simulations show that these stars formed in dark matter haloes where the temperature allowed large amounts of molecular hydrogen to gather.
Here’s where this study differs from previous ones. Since the PI supernova explodes and creates high-metallicity gas, the gas cools more quickly. That allows the next star to form sooner, and hence, planetesimals and planets. The remarkable part is that this could’ve happened before the first galaxies formed. If true, it would change our understanding of the Universe and of life. However, this is just one simulation. How could observations support it?
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