The first stars ever born in the universe may have just been found hiding inside a massive, glowing cluster called Hebe.
April 23, 2026
Original Paper
What is Powering the Enigmatic He II Emitter Hebe: The First Stars or Black Holes?
arXiv · 2604.19075
AI-generated illustration
The Takeaway
Population III stars were made of pure hydrogen and helium and were hundreds of times larger than our Sun. For decades, these legendary first-born stars have been the missing link in the history of the cosmos. New data suggests that the intense light coming from the Hebe cluster matches the unique signature of these ancient giants. Finding them would explain how the cosmic dark ages ended and how the first heavy elements were forged. This discovery would be the astronomical equivalent of finding the original blueprints for the entire universe.
From the abstract
Recent high-resolution spectroscopy with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has confirmed the presence of a strong He II, $\lambda1640$ emitting clump in the vicinity of GN-z11, with only upper limits on its metallicity. To explain the peculiar properties of this source, now termed Hebe, a cluster of metal-free, Population III (Pop III) stars has been invoked. A less likely source for the hard UV ionizing radiation could be an accreting supermassive black hole (SMBH) embedded inside Hebe. We