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For hundreds of millions of old age afterthe Big Bang , the entire universe was a thick soup of hydrogen mote swimming in total blackness . So obtuse was this cosmic goulash that the first light from the first stars in existence could n’t imbue it — the hydrogen fog simply absorbed and scattered the starlight in circle , trap the universe of discourse in acosmic dark ageas ever more stars , galaxies and opprobrious holes easy smoldered to biography .
That all changed after about 500 million years , when a deluxe cosmic makeover called the epoch of reionization began . As ancient extragalactic nebula farm ever larger and radiate more powerful vim , they start to burn off the cosmic fog that surrounded them by splitting ( or ionizing ) hydrogen atoms into aplasmaof free proton and negatron . Suddenly , lightness could locomote across the cosmos — first through " bubbles " of plasma fence orotund extragalactic nebula , then further and farther as multiple bubble began to extend and overlap .
This illustrated map of the universe shows galaxy group EGS77 clearing away the cosmic fog of the early universe, some 13 billion years ago.
Now , for the first time , astronomers believe they ’ve detected three of those fog - clearing bubbles hard at work remold the universe in a group of galaxy 13 billion clear - years by .
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In a study that was submit this week at the American Astronomical Society conference in Honolulu and submitted for issue in a forthcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal , an international squad of stargazer identified a trio of faraway galaxies that seem to be radiating some of the early light ever observed . The galax grouping , key EGS77 , go steady to approximately 680 million years afterthe prominent Bang(roughly 5 % of the universe ’s current age of 13.8 billion years ) and seem to be hem in by three overlapping bubble of plasma — mean these open up beetleweed may have been caught in the deed of reionizing their recess of the universe and bringing the cosmic dark ages to an end .
" EGS77 has imprint a large house of cards that allows its light to journey to Earth , " study co - author Vithal Tilvi , a researcher at Arizona State University , said in a assertion . " Eventually , bubble like these mature around all galaxies and fill intergalactic space , reionizing the universe and empty the way for light to jaunt across the existence . "
To find these ancient fog - clarification galaxies , the research worker surveyed a modest section of space for the precise wavelength ofultraviolet lightemitted by the early star , also make love as Lyman - alpha emissions . The light begin at a wavelength of 121.6 nanometers but , after locomote for billions of years across the expanding macrocosm , slowly stretches out into the close - infrared range ( 700 nanometre to 1 mm ) , which is easier to detect with Earth telescopes .
The resume turned up three overlapping pinpoint of place that seemed to be breathe the precise wavelengths typical of ancient stars ionizing their surroundings . The squad compared these observations with datum from two other telescopes and confirmed the galaxies were about 13 billion light - years aside , make them the farthermost extragalactic nebula group ever observe and station them flop on the frontier of the epoch of reionization .
" EGS77 is the first galaxy group capture in the act of shed light on out this cosmic murk , " study conscientious objector - source James Rhoads ofNASA ’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt , Maryland , enjoin in the financial statement .
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