The first stars may not have been as uniformly massive as astronomers thought

Swirls of pink and orange gas and dust form a brilliant glowing nebula amidst the stars in deep space.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

For decades, astronomers have wondered what the very first stars in the universe were like. These stars formed new chemical elements, which enriched the universe and allowed the next generations of stars to form the first planets.