{"id":588,"date":"2026-04-17T16:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/?p=588"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:45:00","slug":"a-group-of-students-discovers-a-small-star-with-almost-no-metal-in-the-milky-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/?p=588","title":{"rendered":"A group of students discovers a small star with almost no metal in the Milky Way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<p>A group of students from the University of Chicago discovered an extremely ancient star,<strong> SDSS J0715-7334<\/strong>it can&#8217;t be in the Milky Way. This galaxy contains almost no heavy elements and formed in another galaxy before drifting ashore into our galaxy. <\/p>\n<p>This discovery was made by a team of students under their guidance. <em>Professor Alex Gee<\/em>Using the data of <strong>Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)<\/strong>. This international collaboration will collect astronomical data that will help scientists study the evolution of stars, black holes, and galaxies. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">they discovered fossil stars in space<\/h2>\n<p>It all started in an astronomy class at the University of Chicago. As reported, <em>Professor Alex Gee<\/em>students were given the task of examining thousands of stars using . <strong>SDSS data<\/strong>. On my first night&#8217;s observations, one of the objects immediately caught my eye. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" class=\"icon icon-quote\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon-quote\"\/><\/svg><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI found that out on the first night and it completely changed my plans for the course.\u201d <em>Ji <\/em>Said. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><sub>SDSS J0715-7334, a red giant star, travels from the Large Magellanic Cloud to the Milky Way. Credit: Carnegie Institution for Science<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The finding in question, SDSS J0715-7334, has unique characteristics. It is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, with very few metals, making it one of the oldest and oldest discoveries. <strong>Most &#8220;primitive&#8221; stars <\/strong>observed so far. Due to the lack of heavy elements such as <strong>carbon <\/strong>or <strong>oxygen <\/strong>This shows that this star formed long before most supernovae responsible for producing heavier elements. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" class=\"icon icon-quote\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon-quote\"\/><\/svg><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All the heavy elements in the universe, which astronomers call metals, were created by stellar processes, from nuclear fusion reactions inside stars to supernovae and collisions between very dense stars,&#8221; he added.<em> Ji <\/em>In a statement released by <strong><em>Carnegie Institute for Science<\/em><\/strong>. &#8220;So finding a star with very little metal content told this group of students that they were encountering something very special.&#8221; <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An &#8220;immigrant&#8221; star from another galaxy<\/h2>\n<p>SDSS J0715-7334 does not come from the Milky Way. Instead, it is <strong>large magellanic cloud<\/strong>the neighboring galaxy. By tracking its movement through space, researchers discovered that it left its galaxy of origin and eventually landed in the Milky Way billions of years ago. <\/p>\n<p>This intergalactic journey has given this object the following title: <strong>&#8220;Ancient Immigrants&#8221;<\/strong> According to <em>Professor Ji<\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" class=\"icon icon-quote\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon-quote\"\/><\/svg><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This ancient immigrant gives us unprecedented observations about the conditions of the early universe,&#8221; he said. \u201cBig data projects like SDSS allow students to be directly involved in these important discoveries.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Students at the forefront of discovery<\/h2>\n<p>The most notable aspects of this finding are detailed in the following articles: <em><strong>natural astronomy<\/strong><\/em>that it was driven by a student. <em>Ha-do<\/em>One student who participated in the project expressed his excitement: <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" class=\"icon icon-quote\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon-quote\"\/><\/svg><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s really exciting to be able to actually contribute to something like this.\u201d Student participation in this research highlights how collaborative projects like SDSS can provide young researchers with access to advanced astronomical data.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"710\" src=\"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/A-group-of-students-discovers-a-small-star-with-almost.webp\" alt=\"This image shows the orbit of Sdss J0715 7334, which follows its path from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to the Milky Way.\" class=\"wp-image-130732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/This-image-shows-the-orbit-of-SDSS-J0715-7334-tracing-its-path-from-the-Large-Magellanic-Cloud-LMC-into-the-Milky-Way-scaled.jpg.webp 1200w,https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/This-image-shows-the-orbit-of-SDSS-J0715-7334-tracing-its-path-from-the-Large-Magellanic-Cloud-LMC-into-the-Milky-Way-420x248.jpg.webp 420w,https:\/\/dailygalaxy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/This-image-shows-the-orbit-of-SDSS-J0715-7334-tracing-its-path-from-the-Large-Magellanic-Cloud-LMC-into-the-Milky-Way-520x308.jpg.webp 520w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><sub>This image shows the trajectory of SDSS J0715-7334, which follows a path from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to the Milky Way. Credit: Natural Astronomy<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Natalie Orrantia<\/em>Another member of the team plans to pursue graduate studies because of this experience. as <em>Juna Kollmeyer<\/em>SDSS-V Director said: <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><svg aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\" class=\"icon icon-quote\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\"><use xlink:href=\"#icon-quote\"\/><\/svg><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As an undergrad, I much preferred doing research to taking classes. I&#8217;m glad that Alex&#8217;s course has turned into a discovery curriculum, and I want to see that surveys like SDSS-V and Gaia have the power to make it the norm rather than the exception,&#8221; she said. &#8220;These students didn&#8217;t just discover the most primitive star; they discovered an inalienable right to physics.&#8221; <\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n<p>#group #students #discovers #small #star #metal #Milky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of students from the University of Chicago discovered an extremely ancient star, SDSS J0715-7334it can&#8217;t be in the Milky Way. This galaxy contains almost no heavy elements and formed in another galaxy before drifting ashore into our galaxy. This discovery was made by a team of students under their guidance. Professor Alex GeeUsing &#8230; <a title=\"A group of students discovers a small star with almost no metal in the Milky Way\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/?p=588\" aria-label=\"Read more about A group of students discovers a small star with almost no metal in the Milky Way\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1093,168,1095,1096,386,1094,1092],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-discovers","tag-group","tag-metal","tag-milky","tag-small","tag-star","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hyokal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}