University of Portsmouth study suggests planet-building materials 100-million-years post-Big-Bang
A new study from the University of Portsmouth says the building blocks of rocky planets like Earth might have started forming just 100 million years after the Big Bang, way earlier than scientists thought.
Turns out, heavy elements like carbon and iron (the stuff planets are made of) were created by massive star explosions in the young universe.
This pushes back the timeline for planet formation and makes our cosmic history a bit more exciting.
Population III supernovae seeded several-Earth-mass solids
The research spotlights Population III stars, the first big stars ever, which some ended their lives as powerful supernovae, spreading planet-building materials into space.
Simulations showed a young star surrounded by enough solid material to potentially produce several Earth masses of planetary building blocks located at approximately the same distance from its star as Earth is from the Sun.
So, rocky worlds could have popped up much sooner and in places not so different from our solar system.