Scientists from the Paris Astrophysics Institute in France have discovered what was the first source of light in the newborn Universe. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Nature.
According to data obtained from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, dwarf galaxies were illuminating the dark space after the Big Bang.
“Ultra-weak galaxies produce ionizing photons that transform neutral hydrogen into ionized plasma during cosmic reionization. This highlights the importance of understanding low-mass galaxies in shaping the history of the universe,” explained astrophysicist Irina Chereminskaya, co-author of the study.
At the beginning of the universe, minutes after the Big Bang, space was filled with a hot, dense fog of ionized plasma.
About 300,000 years later, as the Universe cooled, protons and electrons began to combine to form neutral hydrogen gas and some helium. Light of most wavelengths could penetrate this medium, but there were few light sources to create it. Later, the first star clusters formed from helium and hydrogen.
These stars radiated enough energy to knock electrons out of their cores and reionize the gas. However, at this point the Universe had expanded so much that the gas had dispersed. The reionization process of space took about a billion years.
“Despite their small size, these low-mass galaxies turned out to be efficient producers of energetic radiation, and their number during this period was so significant that their collective impact could change the entire state of the Universe,” said the head of the study. team, astrophysicist Hakim Atek.
Earlier astronomers to create Far out in space, there is an object 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun.