Astronomers Detect Signal From 13.4B Years Ago

Signal shows dawn of the universe, possible evidence of dark matter
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 28, 2018 8:34 PM CST
Astronomers Glimpse Cosmic Dawn, When Stars Turned On
This image provided by the National Science Foundation shows a timeline of the universe. Scientists have detected a signal from 180 million years after the Big Bang when the earliest stars began glowing. The findings were published on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, in the journal Nature.   (N.R. Fuller/National Science Foundation via AP)

After the Big Bang, it was cold and black. And then there was light. Now, for the first time, astronomers have glimpsed that dawn of the universe 13.6 billion years ago when the earliest stars were turning on the light in the cosmic darkness, the AP reports. And if that's not enough, they may have detected mysterious dark matter at work, too. The glimpse consisted of a faint radio signal from deep space, picked up by an antenna that is slightly bigger than a refrigerator and costs less than $5 million but in certain ways can go back much farther in time and distance than the celebrated, multibillion-dollar Hubble Space Telescope. Judd Bowman, lead author of a study in Wednesday's journal Nature, said the signal came from the very first objects in the universe as it was emerging out of darkness 180 million years after the Big Bang.

Seeing the universe just lighting up, even though it was only a faint signal, is even more important than the Big Bang because "we are made of star stuff, and so we are glimpsing at our origin," said astronomer Richard Ellis. The signal showed unexpectedly cold temperatures and an unusually pronounced wave. When astronomers tried to figure out why, the best explanation was that elusive dark matter may have been at work. If verified, that would be the first confirmation of its kind of dark matter, which is a substantial part of the universe that scientists have been searching for over decades. "If confirmed, this discovery deserves two Nobel Prizes" for both capturing the signal of the first stars and potential dark matter confirmation, said Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb. He said independent tests are needed to verify the findings. Read more here.

(More astronomy stories.)

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