- Pallab Ghosh
- Science Correspondent, BBC News
Image source, Ralph Kayler / Tom Abel
This simulation of what an early star will look like is based on astronomical data. Many of them were larger than our sun and relatively short-lived.
When the first stars began to shine, astronomers discovered.
They confirm that this period, known as the “Cosmic Dawn”, occurred 250 to 350 million years after the Big Bang.
These results suggest that the first galaxies will be brighter NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Will be released later this year.
The study was published in the journal Science Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Discovering when Cosmic Morning began was a lifelong activity by Professor Richard Ellis of University College London.
“Holy Grail is looking back to see first-generation stars and galaxies,” Ellis told the BBC.
“Now we have The first evidence of when the universe first bathed in starlight“.
Scientists have analyzed six distant galaxies. They were so far away that even the most powerful telescopes in the world appeared in a few pixels on a computer screen.
They are also among the first to rise in the universe. Therefore, when the Earth’s telescopes copy its images, they can be seen shortly after the Big Bang.
Considering their age, the researchers concluded that it was the beginning of the cosmic dawn in which the first stars formed. Nicholas Laport of the Cowley Institute for Astronomy in Cambridge led the analysis.
“This is the most important question in modern cosmology. This is the first time we can predict from observation when this crucial moment in the history of the universe will occur,” Laport told the BBC.
Scientists say that getting this result is a dream come true.
“It is gratifying to think that light particles have traveled through space in more than 13 places.000 Entered into a telescope millions of years later. The amazing thing about being an astronomer is the ability to travel through time and witness the distant past, ”he explained.
The universe was born 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang. After an initial flash, it went through a period known as the Cosmic Dark Ages. According to a new study, 250 to 350 million years after the Big Bang, the first stars to shine into the universe appeared..
The new analysis conclusively indicates that the first galaxies were bright enough and visible within range, according to the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the esteemed Hubble Space Telescope.
This means that astronomers can directly witness this crucial moment in the evolution of the universe.
Image source, That’s it
The VLT, or very large telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile, was one of the first telescopes used to determine when the first stars shone.
Astronomer Catherine Heymans said she was very excited about the possibility.
“As a small civilization on Earth, we can create a telescope that can send us into space and see what the universe would look like a few hundred million years after the Big Bang !!?” Hayman told the BBC.
Many of the early players were perfect Is different from our sun. They were larger and burned only hydrogen. But these objects created the next generation of stars, which led to the formation of heavier elements in the periodic table.
All stars except hydrogen, helium, and lithium are created within themselves when they explode at the end of their lives.
So, ultimately, We are made up of stars born near the dawn of the universe.
“Because we are the product of stellar evolution, we look back to our own origins,” said Professor Ellis.
The researchers analyzed starlight from galaxies using the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope. They calculated the age of the galaxies by examining the ratio of hydrogen atoms in the stellar atmosphere. Older stars have higher proportions of hydrogen atoms.
Image source, Nicholas Laport
It is one of the few galaxies found about 500 million years after the Big Bang. It looks pixelated even with the most powerful telescopes in the world.
The team of researchers calculated how far the galaxies were. Because it takes time for light from these galaxies to reach us, they are far away, and astronomers are watching them.
The six galaxies studied are the oldest known because they are within the boundaries of telescopic objects.
The team requires 70 hours of observation time and calculates their distance using the four largest basic telescopes. Atacama Large Millimeter / Sub Millimeter Array (Alma) – A single telescope with 66 antennas-, the VLT (Too big telescope or too big telescope) and South Gemini Telescope, All located in Chile and on dual telescopes Cake In Hawaii.
These measurements allowed scientists to confirm that these galaxies were observed when the universe was 550 million years old.
Once the age of the galaxies was known and they existed, it allowed researchers to estimate when the first stars were born.
A similar estimate was made using only individual galaxies, but this is the first important estimate based on a representative group of galaxies.
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