reionise the Universe tagged posts

First Stars Formed even Later than previously thought

Cosmic reionisation. Credit: ESA – C. Carreau

Cosmic reionisation. Credit: ESA – C. Carreau

ESA’s Planck satellite has revealed that the first stars in the Universe started forming later than previous observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, CMB indicated. This new analysis also shows these stars were the only sources needed to account for reionising atoms in the cosmos, having completed half of this process when the Universe had reached 700 million years.

With the multitude of stars and galaxies that populate the present Universe, it’s hard to imagine how different our 13.8 billion year cosmos was when it was only a few seconds old. At that early phase, it was a hot, dense primordial soup of particles, mostly electrons, protons, neutrinos, and photons – particles of light...

Read More