It was then possible for stable atoms to be created. ![]() After about 380,000 years, this plasma had cooled down to 3000 Kelvin. The density and temperature decreased just as quickly, and the light particles (photons) lost increasingly more energy. At that time, a hot, dense fog of radiation and elementary particles wafted in space, which was rapidly expanding. The universe came into being around 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang. Nature, 2022 DOI: 10.© ESA and the Planck Collaboration zoom-in panel: Dominik Riechers/University of Cologne image composition: Martina Markus/University of Cologne Microwave background temperature at a redshift of 6.34 from H2O absorption. ![]() ‘With the expected improvements in precision from studies of larger samples of water clouds, it remains to be seen if our current, basic understanding of the expansion of the Universe holds.” Roberto Neri said, “Our team is already following this up with NOEMA by studying the surroundings of other galaxies. This new technique provides important new insights into the evolution of the Universe, which are very difficult to constrain otherwise at such early epochs.”Ĭo-author and NOEMA project scientist Dr. They aim to map out the cooling of the Big Bang echo within the first 1.5 billion years of cosmic history. Riechers said, “Having discovered one such cold water cloud in a starburst galaxy in the early Universe, the team is now setting out to find many more across the sky. That is to say, an expanding Universe in which the density of dark energy does not change.” “Based on this experiment, the properties of dark energy remain for now consistent with those of Einstein’s ‘cosmological constant. Axel Weiss from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn said, “This important milestone not only confirms the expected cooling trend for a much earlier epoch than has previously been possible to measure but could also have direct implications for the nature of the elusive dark energy.” “In other words, if a galaxy with otherwise identical properties as HFLS3 were to exist today, the water shadow would not be observable because the required contrast in temperatures would no longer exist.”Ĭo-author Dr. We have therefore a unique observing window that opens up to a very young Universe only.” Quite early, about 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background was already too cold for this effect to be observable. Dominik Riechers from the University of Cologne’s Institute of Astrophysics said, “Besides proof of cooling, this discovery also shows us that the Universe in its infancy had some quite specific physical characteristics that no longer exist today. As the water temperature can be determined from other observed properties of the starburst, the difference indicates the temperature of the Big Bang’s relic radiation. The shadow results from the absorption of the warmer microwave radiation by the colder water on its path towards Earth, and its darkness reveals the temperature difference. They discovered a screen of cold water gas that casts a shadow on the cosmic microwave background radiation. The galaxy is located at a distance corresponding to only 880 million years after the Big Bang. Using the NOEMA observatory in the French Alps, the most powerful radio telescope in the Northern Hemisphere, scientists observed a massive starburst galaxy HFLS3. The discovery not only sets a very early milestone in the development of the cosmic background temperature but could also have implications for the enigmatic dark energy.
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