Science publishes landmark article, “Detection of Pristine Gas Two Billion Years After the Big Bang.”

After The Aftermath

Astronomers have found two clouds of gas that formed in the first few minutes after the Big Bang that created our universe, a new study reveals.

This discovery is the first time these gas clouds have been detected and adds more support to what is already the most widely accepted theory of how our universe came to be, astronomers said.

The primordial gas clouds were found to contain only the lightest elements — hydrogen and helium — that were created in the Big Bang. A few hundred million years later, clumps of these gas clouds condensed to form the first stars, which created and dispersed heavier elements throughout the universe.

The new observations appear to match the theoretical predictions about the chemical makeup of the early universe, said study leader Michele Fumagalli, a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

“It’s actually a very nice confirmation of the theory, because the theory predicts that in the first few minutes after the Big Bang, things like hydrogen and helium were produced and no metals. So, this is the first time that we have a very strong observation and evidence that indeed this theory is correct. It’s good news for cosmology.”

Full article: Primordial Gas Clouds Reveal Glimpse of Big Bang’s Aftermath

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From cwnl:

The Universe’s Dark Ages: How Our Cosmos Survived

The dark ages of the universe — an era of darkness that existed before the first stars and galaxies — mostly remain a mystery because there is so little of it to see, but scientists intensely desire to shed light on them in order to learn secrets about how the universe came into being.

“The dark ages represent our origins — when the very first stars formed and created the heavy elements we are made of today,” said theoretical astrophysicist Abraham Loeb, chairman of the astronomy department at Harvard University.

Now researchers are developing tools for gazing back into this hitherto enigmatic time. To put things in perspective, astronomers estimate that the universe is 13.7 billion years old.

“Our existence is a result of these first generation of stars, so when we investigate the dark ages, we’re exploring our origins,” Loeb, who is also the author of “How Did The First Stars and Galaxies Form?” (Princeton University Press, 2010).

First Light, Then Darkness, Then Light Again

Before the dark ages of the universe, the cosmos was so hot that all the atoms that existed were split into positively charged nuclei and negatively charged electrons. These electrically charged ions blocked all light from traveling freely.

Approximately 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled down enough for these ions to recombine into atoms, enabling the first light in the cosmos, that from the Big Bang, to finally shine. However, what came next were the dark ages of the universe — there was no other light, as the stars were not born yet.

Current models of the universe suggest the first galaxies began forming about 100 million years after the Big Bang, marking the beginning of the end of the dark ages. This process of star and galaxy formation gradually continued until virtually all the hydrogen and helium that make up most of the universe was once again ionized, this time by starlight, about 500 million years after the Big Bang.

(via ikenbot)