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Originally Posted by Michael Mozina
I would expect Hubble to be able to discern a significant difference in the amount of iron then compared to now, even assuming a few stars went supernova by then.
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One very important thing to remember is that when we look at galaxies as far back as Hubble and other instruments can get good spectroscopy for, we are seeing systems that have been active for hundreds of millions of years, but it only takes a few million years for the largest stars to go through to become supernovae. Also, the only parts of these galactic masses that we are seeing directly are the parts that are going through active and vigorous star formation. This is exactly where the highest concentrations of Iron should be, and they should be showing modern mature levels of Iron even then.