Echoes of the First Stars: Massive Star Evolution in Extremely Metal-Poor Environments with the Habitable Worlds Observatory
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Senchyna, Peter Hawcroft, Calum Garcia, Miriam Wofford, Aida Lee, Janice C. Evans, Chris |
| author_facet | Senchyna, Peter Hawcroft, Calum Garcia, Miriam Wofford, Aida Lee, Janice C. Evans, Chris |
| contents | A remarkable span of frontier astrophysics, from gravitational-wave archaeology to the origin of the elements to interpreting snapshots of the earliest galaxies, depends sensitively on our understanding of massive star formation and evolution in near-pristine, relatively enriched gas. From the surprisingly massive black holes detected by LIGO/Virgo to highly ionized nebulae with peculiar enrichment patterns observed in galaxies at Cosmic Dawn, evidence is mounting that our understanding of massive-star populations at very low metallicity remains critically incomplete. The fundamental limitation is the hand nature has dealt us: only a few star-forming galaxies within $\lesssim$1 Mpc can currently be resolved into individual stars, and none reach the extreme metallicities and star-formation intensities that characterized the early Universe. With an ultraviolet integral-field spectrograph aboard the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), this barrier will finally be broken. HWO will bring rare, actively star-forming, extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxies at $\sim$10-20 Mpc such as I Zw 18 within reach of resolved UV-optical spectroscopy, providing our first direct, statistical view of individual massive stars and the feedback they drive at $>$30 $M_\odot$ and $<$10% $Z_\odot$. This science is deeply synergistic with many next-generation facilities, yet requires the unique combination of spatial resolution and UV/optical sensitivity that only HWO can provide. The massive star science enabled by HWO within the Local Volume represents a transformational advance in our ability to probe the earliest stellar populations - those that seeded the Milky Way and other galaxies with the first heavy elements, and paved the way for life in the transparent, reionized Universe we inhabit today. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_03715 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Echoes of the First Stars: Massive Star Evolution in Extremely Metal-Poor Environments with the Habitable Worlds Observatory Senchyna, Peter Hawcroft, Calum Garcia, Miriam Wofford, Aida Lee, Janice C. Evans, Chris Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies A remarkable span of frontier astrophysics, from gravitational-wave archaeology to the origin of the elements to interpreting snapshots of the earliest galaxies, depends sensitively on our understanding of massive star formation and evolution in near-pristine, relatively enriched gas. From the surprisingly massive black holes detected by LIGO/Virgo to highly ionized nebulae with peculiar enrichment patterns observed in galaxies at Cosmic Dawn, evidence is mounting that our understanding of massive-star populations at very low metallicity remains critically incomplete. The fundamental limitation is the hand nature has dealt us: only a few star-forming galaxies within $\lesssim$1 Mpc can currently be resolved into individual stars, and none reach the extreme metallicities and star-formation intensities that characterized the early Universe. With an ultraviolet integral-field spectrograph aboard the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), this barrier will finally be broken. HWO will bring rare, actively star-forming, extremely metal-poor dwarf galaxies at $\sim$10-20 Mpc such as I Zw 18 within reach of resolved UV-optical spectroscopy, providing our first direct, statistical view of individual massive stars and the feedback they drive at $>$30 $M_\odot$ and $<$10% $Z_\odot$. This science is deeply synergistic with many next-generation facilities, yet requires the unique combination of spatial resolution and UV/optical sensitivity that only HWO can provide. The massive star science enabled by HWO within the Local Volume represents a transformational advance in our ability to probe the earliest stellar populations - those that seeded the Milky Way and other galaxies with the first heavy elements, and paved the way for life in the transparent, reionized Universe we inhabit today. |
| title | Echoes of the First Stars: Massive Star Evolution in Extremely Metal-Poor Environments with the Habitable Worlds Observatory |
| topic | Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.03715 |