Hints of elusive early stars found

Astronomers may have discovered the signature of one of the Universe's earliest stars.

Theoretical models predict that some of the very first stars were hundreds of times larger than the Sun.
But no clear evidence of this had been found so far.
Scientists writing in the journal Science have discovered the traces of an early massive stellar object in the exceptional chemical composition of a star in our galaxy.
"This is quite a unique star, with a very peculiar chemical pattern that has never been found previously," said lead author Dr Wako Aoki, from the National Observatory of Japan.

The star in question revealed a chemical composition never seen before

In the first several hundred million years after the Big Bang, the Universe was composed only of hydrogen and helium. It had no structure, no stars, nor any black holes.
"It was a very featureless, boring Universe. Then the first stars formed and fundamentally transformed it," said Dr Volker Bromm from the University of Texas, Austin.
Dr Bromm, who was not part of the study, has worked for many years on numerical simulations of early star and galaxy formation-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28885991