The team examined chemical traces of Population III stars using a 13.1-billion-year-old quasar.

Astronomers may have found the chemical traces of the one of earliest stars — born when the universe was just 100 million years old — that exploded in a "super-supernova.".

These first-generation stars, known as Population III stars, ended their lives in titanic supernova explosions that seeded the universe with chemical elements the stars had forged during their lifetimes.

But astronomers have been unable to find direct evidence of one of these earliest, Population III stars — until now. .

The researchers were able to deduce the chemical elements in the cloud and found an unusually high ratio of iron to magnesium — 10 times greater than the same ratio in the sun.

The astronomers think this could debris cloud only be the result of a first-generation star with a mass 300 times greater than the sun that exploded in a remarkably powerful supernova called a pair-instability supernova.

That means that these supernovas can't be spotted by looking for stellar remnants, so can only be tracked in two ways: either by directly witnessing them as they happen — highly unlikely given how vast space is — or by spotting the chemical signature of the material they blast out.

"It was obvious to me that the supernova candidate for this would be a pair-instability supernova of a Population III star, in which the entire star explodes without leaving any remnant behind," research co-author and University of Tokyo astronomer Yuzuru Yoshii, said in a statement.

"I was delighted and somewhat surprised to find that a pair-instability supernova of a star with a mass about 300 times that of the sun provides a ratio of magnesium to iron that agrees with the low value we derived for the quasar.".

Yoshii and the team think this is the clearest indicator yet of a Population III star and a pair-instability supernova.

And although high-mass Population III stars would have ended their lives long ago and thus the event would only be visible far away, their chemical signatures may be detectable closer to home.

The team thinks that the pair-instability signature may last a long time, so the evidence of long-dead stars may also be found imprinted on objects in the local universe. .