The First Stars

The very first stars in the universe died a long time before astronomers could get a look at them. Billions of years after the last of these first stars expired, telescopes are finally tracking them down. This radio broadcast uncovers new research into how the transition from dark to light came about. After the Big Bang which established time, space and matter, there was a dark age - a stretch of 100 million years which persisted until the first lights appeared. The broadcast explains why the first stars - before the stars and galaxies we know today came into being - are believed to have been phenomenally large protostars with a mass - or weight - around 100 times greater than our own Sun and occupying a vastly greater volume of space. So far, no visual trace of these megastars has been found, but we could be on the threshold of finding it, perhaps with the NGST telescope (Next Generation Space Telescope). The broadcast is 30 minutes in length. Educational levels: General public