Many stars that were born in the first billion years of the cosmos are now drained and live on . Some exploded in supernovae , some change into other aim – but not all of these early stars have arrest shining . Some are still around , and researchershave reportedthe discovery of a population around the core of the Milky Way and , more excitingly , how they are moving .

To hunt for the oldest virtuoso in our galax , astronomer look for those stars that are not “ polluted . ” The very first stars only had hydrogen and helium as their element , and all the other elements – which astronomers call alloy for simpleness and to wrath chemists – were created in these stars .

So a star with low metallicity , with only small amount of money of elements enceinte than He , is a whiz that formed a long time ago . It is easy to find these objects off from the planing machine of the Milky Way . They are easy to spot , but this team clearly like a challenge and seem toward the most crowded region of our galax , its center , known as the bulge .

![Artist impression of the ancient stars in the inner region of the Milky Way. Some examples of the orbits of the stars have been highlighted on the left. The right-hand side shows the location of these stars in the Galaxy with respect to the Sun, spinning around slowly.](https://assets.iflscience.com/assets/articleNo/69674/iImg/69048/Galaxy stars Arentsen.jpeg)

Location and orbits of the ancient stars in the center of the Milky Way.Image Credit: left background – ESA/Gaia, artist impression: Amanda J. Smith and Anke Arentsen, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge

“ It is quite thought-provoking as it mostly untested stars there , we want a very effective selection method acting to regain these stars , ” Dr Anke Arentsen from the University of Cambridge tell IFLScience . “ What I have been act upon on over the past few years , building a real - life sampling of these stars . ”

The gibbosity is believe to have form first as the galaxy evolve , so older star topology had to be there . The new work in particular focus on the motion of these star around the bulge . They are a chaotic crowd , moving in rummy orbits around the key region of the Milky Way – but it is not concluded bedlam . There is an average rotation that is reproducible with the rotation of the phonograph recording of the Milky Way . Messy , but they still come down in business line with almost all the other lead in the wandflower .

The data also shows that their electron orbit and interaction have never accept them too far from where they were gestate . Almost all of their lives were pass in the inner Milky Way , never going beyond 10,000 light - years from the center . The Sun is at 26,000 light - years .

“ What we are actually seeing is that most of them are remain there . People have asked me : ‘ Are these lead just pass through ? Are they on very elliptic orbits expend a little bit of time in the inner parts ? ’ What we are finding is that they are stay there , ” Dr Arentsen say IFLScience .

The piece of work was presented this week at theNational Astronomy Meeting 2023at the University of Cardiff .