London - A group of scientists has discovered a distant star that could date back to the beginning of the universe.
The giant star, HE0107-5240, is a galactic rarity because it is virtually metal-free unlike the other, more modern known stars, they wrote in the science journal Nature.
"These old stars provide crucial clues to the star formation history and the synthesis of chemical elements in the early universe," they said.
"If totally metal-free stars could be found, this would allow the direct study of the pristine gas from the Big Bang," they added.
'Metal-free stars could still exist' The existence of stars with zero or very low metal content has been hypothesised for decades, but none has ever been found before - throwing the theory into doubt.
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At the dawn of time these stars contained most of the elements in the universe.
But quite early in its history these nuclear furnaces began to convert the lighter elements into heavier ones like carbon, phosphorous and lead - collectively known as metals.
In theory, therefore, there were once large numbers of the low or zero-metal stars, some of which should still exist but which - until the discovery of HE0107-5240 - had never been found.
"This discovery suggests that (metal-free) stars could still exist," the scientists said.
"The previous failure to find them may be an observational selection effect," they added.
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