The birth of the Universe has been pinpointed 13.7 billion years ago, when the dark matter that accounts for much of the universe’s mass was shattered by light, as the first protostar was born. But the formation of the protostars, the first objects in the Universe, has remained a mystery for astronomers.

However, a team of international experts announced the successful computer simulation of the birth of a protostar, starting with recreating the primordial conditions and ingredients that led to the evolution of the Universe as diverse as wee see it today, with starts, planets and other celestial bodies.

Following the Big Bang was a period of Dark Ages, which cosmologists still had no knowledge about, due to the fact that the first stars that should have offered information about how it all began have disappeared by now.

Looking at the stars now, it would be almost impossible to recreate the conditions in the early stages of the Universe. But the team of scientists led by physicist Naoki Yoshida of Nagoya University, Japan, revealed that the primordial stars needed only a simple mixture of hydrogen, helium and dark matter to form, as magnetic fields and other cosmic phenomena that could influence the birth of a star did not exist.

With the help of a computer simulation, scientists were able to track the formation of a primordial gas cloud, which later creates the conditions for nuclear reactions that turn the mass of gas into a real star. However, establishing a model for this transformation hasn’t been achieved yet, as it would require very powerful computers to reproduce.

We still know very little about early star formation, and there are still essential processes that led to the birth of early stars that we need to understand. But the achievement of the international team “puts the finishing touches to the decade-old quest to build the first star from first principles,” said astrophysicist Volker Bromm from the University of Texas, Austin.