http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/earliest_stars_found.html?1442005 "Astronomers from the Australian National University think they've found one of the earliest stars to have formed in the Universe. It's called HE 1327-2326, and it has the lowest levels of iron ever found in any star" “Thus, we believe HE 1327-2326 formed shortly after the Big Bang — it’s about twice as iron-poor as the previous record holder, HE 0107-5240, which was discovered in 2001 by ANU and German astronomers as part of the same survey" The fact that this star is so iron poor, shows that is really a primordial star, iron is produced in fusion processes inside the star, and expulsed in supernova explosions. I think that is an important finding
Hum, Strangly, the star has an unexpectedly low abundance of the metal lithium and an unexpectedly high amount of the metal strontium for such a primitive star. To explain the strontium, it has been suggested that HE1327-2326 is a binary system. If the primitive star's binary companion evolved quicker, it might have managed to synthesise the heavier metals such as strontium and `seeded` the metal poor companion.
This must be a red or orange dwarf dating back to the early days of the Galaxy; it has never been hot enough to form any element heavier than helium by fusion, and probably never will be. Only orange and red dwarfs remain on the Main Sequence for 12 or 13 billion years...and therefore avoid becoming red giants (and forming heavier elements).
Yes; it is a small, old star, 4000 ly away, and a little smaller than the Sun; probably an orange dwarf. http://www.subarutelescope.org/Pressrelease/2005/04/13/index.html
