Using a radio antenna not much larger than a refrigerator, astronomers have detected for the first time a signal from stars emerging in the
early universe. The researchers discovered that ancient suns were active within 180 million years of the Big Bang, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
"Finding this miniscule signal has opened a new window on the
early Universe," said Arizona State University astronomer Judd Bowman, the project's lead investigator.
Clumpiness in the density of the
early universe piled up into traveling waves of abrupt density spikes, or shocks, like those that create a sonic boom, scientists say.
"Quasars are among the brightest objects and they literally illuminate our knowledge of the
early universe," BaEados said.
Astronomers have discovered one of the brightest quasars in the
early universe: SDSS J0100+2802, powered by a supermassive black hole of 12 or 13 billion solar masses.
However, these clusters have not always existed, and a key question in modern cosmology is how such massive structures assembled in the
early universe.
In a media release, the University of Arizona said that the black hole powered "the brightest quasar of the
early universe." NASA describes quasars as "the brilliant beacons of light that are powered by black holes feasting on captured material, and in the process, heating some of the matter to millions of degrees."
Lead researcher Kim-Vy Tran of Texas A and M University in College Station said that when you look more than 9 billion years ago in the
early universe, you don't expect to find this type of galaxy lensing at all and it's very difficult to see an alignment between two galaxies in the
early universe.