Nearby Pristine Star Carries Clues to the Universe's First Stars

Astronomers identified SDSS J0715-7334, a Sun-like star now a red giant, as the most metal-poor star known (about 0.005% of the Sun) with an unusually low carbon content. Its chemistry implies it formed through a rare cooling pathway aided by tiny cosmic dust from Population III supernovae, possibly born in the Large Magellanic Cloud — a fossil of the early Universe that could guide the search for more ultra-metal-poor stars.