Astronomers Detect a Giant Galaxy Lighting Up The Universe Right After The Big Bang

[Judi Lynn]

MATT WILLIAMS, UNIVERSE TODAY10 JULY 2020

About 370,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe experienced a period that cosmologists refer to as the "Cosmic Dark Ages."

During this period, the Universe was obscured by a hot dense plasma that obscured all visible light, making it invisible to astronomers.

As the first stars and galaxies formed over the next few hundred millions of years, the radiation they emitted ionized this plasma, making the Universe transparent.

One of the biggest cosmological mysteries right now is when "cosmic reionization" began. To find out, astronomers have been looking deeper into the cosmos (and farther back in time) to spot the first visible galaxies.

Thanks to new research by a team of astronomers from University College London (UCL), a luminous galaxy has been observed that was reionizing the intergalactic medium 13 billion years ago.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-detected-a-giant-galaxy-lighting-up-the-universe-right-after-the-big-bang

[CatLady78]

1. Good -a pleasant read

Astronomy is mind expanding ...so much of everything else is the opposite..

[eppur_se_muova]

2. The article makes reference to "ionized photons" -- I think I'd get my science news elsewhere.

Not to mention that "plasma ionization" is something of an abuse of the terminology (although probably accepted among astronomers and cosmologists).