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First Stars May Have Formed Just 250 Million Years After the Big Bang
Early Star Formation Presents New Cosmic Mystery:
New observations suggest that stars began forming just 250 million years after the Big Bang — a record-breaker that will likely open a new line of cosmological inquiry.
Astronomers peering back into time suggest that the cosmic dark ages — before the universe hosted its sea of twinkling lights — might have lasted no more than 250 million years. The team presented their results in the journal Nature [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0117-z] [DX] today.
Takuya Hashimoto (Osaka Sangyo University, Japan) and his colleagues used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to peer at a galaxy whose light was emitted 550 million years after the big bang, picking up a long-sought signal: oxygen. It's the most distant galaxy for which astronomers have been able to detect individual elements — and that single element has a big story to tell.
Because only hydrogen, helium, and a little lithium emerged from the Big Bang, the young universe was pristine. It wasn't until the first generation of stars exploded, breathing carbon, oxygen and other heavy elements into the cosmos, that the universe's inventory of elements increased. So, the detection of oxygen 550 million years after the Big Bang suggests that a generation of stars had already formed and died by this point.
Also at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
Scientists see surprise oxygen signal deep in the universe, suggesting stars formed far earlier than originally thought
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Scientists have spotted an oxygen signal deep in the universe, suggesting it formed far differently from how we thought. The new discovery is the most distant oxygen ever seen by a telescope. And it could change our understanding of how stars and the universe as we know it came about. The galaxy is so far away that we are seeing it as it was when the universe was only 500 million years away[sic. And even at that age, it is filled with mature stars – suggesting the process of their formation began only 250 million years after the universe itself began.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 18 2018, @12:57AM (3 children)
The most annoying phrase in science reporting is "than originally thought". It just means "we presented something to you as fact that was wrong, and now we are going to present another thing to you as fact that is wrong".
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Friday May 18 2018, @01:32AM
If anyone presented to you as fact that stars didn't form until 500 million years after the big bang, then you were misled by that person who didn't understand the subject they were teaching. I doubt that any astronomer made that claim.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday May 18 2018, @03:57PM
The whole foundation of science is the recognition that ALL of it is potentially wrong - it's a field of attempting to understand the universe by successive approximations and experimental evidence. And by far the most accurate description we have, exactly because we're willing to admit we were wrong when better evidence contradicts our understanding. We're terribly imperfect animals with big brains and illusions of grandeur - being often wrong is about the only thing we *can* be sure of.
If you want "Absolute Truth", look to religion. Just don't expect that "Truth" to have anything to do with reality - you'll have to be willing to double down on your willful ignorance and never, ever, test the validity of any of that "truth" against the evidence of the real world.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday May 19 2018, @02:19AM
Arthur Ashe -- tremendous tennis player -- said success is a journey. Not a destination. Then he died of AIDS.