The James Webb telescope probably just spotted the very first stars ever made, born purely from Big Bang gas.
March 24, 2026
Original Paper
GA-NIFS & JADES: Confirmation of pristine gas near GN-z11
arXiv · 2603.20360
The Takeaway
Known as Population III stars, these legendary objects were the first to light up the dark universe and create heavy elements. Astronomers found a pocket of pristine gas near a distant galaxy that contains no heavy metals, providing the strongest evidence yet that these ancient stars actually exist.
From the abstract
According to the leading cosmological model, a first generation of stars called Population III (PopIII), condensed almost entirely out of hydrogen and helium, must have initiated the creation of all heavier chemical elements. Here we report the detection of ionised hydrogen (H$\gamma_{4342}$) with $S/N$=5.9 in a region about 3 pkpc (projected) North-East from the z~10.6 galaxy GN-z11, where line emission compatible with doubly ionised helium (HeII$_{1640}$) had been found. Our new JWST/NIRSpec-I