Rocky planet blocks may form in Population III debris 100 million years after the Big Bang
A Portsmouth simulation on 31 August 2026 finds rocky planet blocks can form 100 million years after the Big Bang from a pair instability supernova that blasted out more than 100 times the Sun's mass. A disk around a star about 70 per cent of the Sun's mass held several Earth masses of solids at Earth's distance, plus water. Daniel Whalen said that is remarkably early in a universe about 13.8 billion years old. The result is a simulation. No planet or disk of that age has been detected.
Science··Midday
Rocky planet building blocks appear in a Portsmouth simulation 100 million years after the Big Bang
Daniel Whalen of the University of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation said a new paper shows that the precursors of terrestrial planets can form around low mass, long lived stars in the debris of the first cosmic explosions 100 million years after the Big Bang. His doctoral student Chris Jessop ran the first part of the simulation chain. Eduard I. Vorobyov and colleagues published the study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on 28 August 2026; Whalen spoke for the work. The universe is about 13.8 billion years old, and Whalen called that remarkably early in cosmic history.[2]
A Population III pair instability supernova blasts out more than 100 times the Sun's mass in heavy elements
A pair instability supernova, a particular type of Population III supernova, is so powerful that it can blast out more than 100 times the Sun's mass in heavy elements in a single explosion. That material enriches nearby gas clouds, which collapse under gravity into a disk around a young star. In the computer simulations of the early universe, the team found one such disk around a young star about 70 per cent as massive as the Sun. Within that disk, enough solid material accumulated to create several Earth masses of planetary building blocks at roughly the same distance from the star as Earth is from the Sun.[1], [2]
The disk, Whalen said, held water only a few times less than the young Solar System
The disk also contained substantial amounts of water, only a few times less than the amount available when our own solar system formed. Whalen said any planets forming there could potentially have received water in a similar way to Earth, which is thought to have gained much of its water from material left over during the planet-building process. He said the conditions for planet formation may have existed much earlier than previously thought, and asked whether potentially habitable worlds could have appeared far earlier in the universe's history as well. The result is a simulation. No planet or disk of that age has been detected.[1], [2]
