'Storm of cosmic light' from the past to the Earth

From Earth, scientists have found strange objects that are shining brightly on the universe.

The study led by Dr. Stephane De Barros (University of Geneva (Switzerland) has found strange objects, much brighter than astronomical theories that were previously studied. Ancient is emitting "light storm" especially at 2 wavelengths of infrared light, created by mixing radiation with galactic gases such as hydrogen and oxygen.

An unusually bright galaxy from the early universe - (additional graphic depiction from Swinburne Astronomy Productions).

This is contrary to many previous studies based on younger, often opaque and unstructured galaxies.

The unusually bright galaxies they found were the oldest galaxies in the universe, about 13 billion years old, which formed only about a billion years after the Big Bang. The team analyzed that these galaxies are releasing a high level of ionizing radiation. This type of radiation, which belongs to the early universe, will reach an abundance of neutral hydrogen and ionize it, transmitting electrical charge. This process kicked off the so-called "reincarnation era" , the time of forming the first stars in the universe.

The light storms from the galaxies "shuddering" with the radiation have occurred about billions of years ago. Because they are so far away, the light is now transmitted to the earth's eyes. The amazing thing is that they still look brilliant even when they themselves have died or changed forever.

Real photos of locations where ancient galaxies were discovered emitting infrared light (circled in red) - (photos provided by the team).

According to the authors, this finding provides a big clue about early cosmic history as well as helping to get closer to the answer to the origin of the universe. The study is based on data from the Spitzer Telescope and wide field data from the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA and ESA); just published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

At the same time, another research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - USA) has just announced a work looking at the past universe. Based on the ancient stars that are believed to be part of the second generation of the universe that some still observe today, they have followed the clues to portray the first stars of the universe. .

"A few hundred million years after the big bang, the first stars were present in the universe when a mass accumulation of hydrogen and helium appeared. In the core of these stars, the fusion reactions produced The first heavy element, including carbon, iron and zinc " - the authors said in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.

The main author, Dr. Anna Frebel, added that the first generation stars are "in a hurry" and die young. They quickly explode like the most intense supernovae, so powerful that they push heavy elements into nearby galaxies. These elements are used as seeds for the second generation of stars.