{"id":614817,"date":"2026-04-18T10:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T10:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614817\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T10:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T10:00:15","slug":"a-group-of-students-discovers-a-tiny-star-with-almost-no-metals-that-shouldnt-be-in-the-milky-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/614817\/","title":{"rendered":"A Group of Students Discovers a Tiny Star with Almost No Metals That Shouldn\u2019t Be in the Milky Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

A group of students from the University of Chicago has made an incredible discovery: an ultra-ancient star, SDSS J0715-7334, that shouldn\u2019t be in the Milky Way. This one, almost devoid of heavy elements, formed in another galaxy before drifting into our own. <\/p>\n

The discovery was made by a team of students under the guidance of Professor Alex Ji, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This international collaboration gathers astronomical data to help scientists study the evolution of stars, black holes, and galaxies. <\/p>\n

They Found A Cosmic Fossil Star<\/p>\n

It all started in an astronomy class at the University of Chicago. As reported by the Professor Alex Ji<\/a>, the students were tasked with examining thousands of stars using SDSS data<\/a>. On their first night of observation, one of the objects stood out immediately. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe found it the first night, and it completely changed our plans for the course,\u201d\u00a0Ji said. <\/p>\n

\"SdssSDSS J0715-7334, a red giant star, travels from the Large Magellanic Cloud to the Milky Way. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science<\/p>\n

The finding in question, SDSS J0715-7334, has unique characteristics: it\u2019s mostly made up of hydrogen and helium, with almost no metals, making it one of the oldest and most \u201cpristine\u201d stars ever observed. The lack of heavy elements like carbon or oxygen indicates that this star formed long before most supernovae<\/a>, which are responsible for creating heavier elements. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the heavier elements in the universe, which astronomers call metals, were produced by stellar processes\u2014from fusion reactions occurring within stars to supernovae explosions to collisions between very dense stars,\u201d added Ji in a statement released by the Carnegie Institution for Science<\/a>. \u201cSo, finding a star with very little metal content in it told this group of students that they\u2019d come across something very special.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

An \u201cImmigrant\u201d Star from Another Galaxy<\/p>\n

SDSS J0715-7334 didn\u2019t come from the Milky Way. Instead, it originated in the Large Magellanic Cloud<\/a>, a neighboring galaxy. By tracing its movement through space, the researchers discovered that it left its galaxy of origin and eventually drifted into the Milky Way billions of years ago. <\/p>\n

This intergalactic journey earned the celestial body the title of \u201cancient immigrant,\u201d according to Professor Ji.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis ancient immigrant gives us an unprecedented look at conditions in the early universe,\u201d he said. \u201cBig data projects like SDSS make it possible for students to get directly involved in these important discoveries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students at the Forefront of Discovery<\/p>\n

What\u2019s particularly remarkable about this discovery, detailed in Nature Astronomy<\/a>, is that it was driven by students. Ha Do, one of the students on the project, shared the excitement: <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to actually contribute to something like this, it\u2019s very exciting.\u201d The student involvement in this work highlights how collaborative projects like SDSS offer young researchers access to advanced astronomical data.<\/p>\n

\"ThisThis image shows the orbit of SDSS J0715-7334, tracing its path from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) into the Milky Way. Credit: Nature Astronomy<\/p>\n

Natalie Orrantia, another member of the team, plans to pursue graduate studies because of this experience. As Juna Kollmeier<\/a>, Director of SDSS-V, put it: <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was an undergraduate, I greatly preferred doing research to taking classes.\u00a0I\u2019m delighted that Alex\u2019s course was transformed into a curriculum of discovery and I\u2019d like to ensure surveys like SDSS-V and Gaia have the power to make that the norm and not the exception,\u201d she noted.\u00a0\u201cThese students have discovered more than just the most pristine star; they have discovered their inalienable right to physics.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of students from the University of Chicago has made an incredible discovery: an ultra-ancient star, SDSS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-614817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}