A team of astronomers may have uncovered the universe’s long-sought first stars, formed just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers have identified an ancient star system, named LAP1-B, which exhibits characteristics expected of the elusive ‘Population III’ or Pop III stars.

Pop III stars, theorised to be the universe’s first generation, are believed to have been vastly different from stars seen today, up to 1,000 times more massive and a million times brighter than the Sun. Yet, despite their enormous size and luminosity, direct evidence of these stars has remained elusive, until now.

LAP1-B, located approximately 13 billion light-years from Earth, lies within a dark matter halo, meaning that the light reaching us today w

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