JWST observations of three galaxies show that carbon, oxygen and silicon were produced and expelled into intergalactic space within about 500 million years after the Big Bang, indicating rapid early star formation and efficient matter exchange between galaxies.
Those heavy elements — carbon, oxygen and silicon — were created inside early stars and dispersed by winds and supernovae into surrounding space.
The observations imply efficient baryon cycling and chemical enrichment very early in cosmic history, before or during the Epoch of Reionization.
Here's how we do it An artist's concept of an early galaxy in the infant Universe. Way back in the earliest epochs of the Universe, the Big Bang was followed by a period called the Cosmic Dark Ages. It was a time when the cosmic soup of primordial particles was so thick that light couldn't propagate.
Although we don't have a definite "century by century" timeline of activity, it doesn't mean this period of history didn't lead to something interesting. Gravity (and the action of dark matter) was acting on material in the infant Universe, pulling clumps of gas together. Some of the earliest stars began forming in those clumps, along with the first proto-galaxy objects.
How the Infant Universe Got Its First Heavy Elements. Universe Today Universe Today is 100% AD-FREE thanks to our patrons. The stars were consuming hydrogen in their cores, turning it into helium.
When the universe was still in its infancy—only 500 million years after the Big Bang, or about 3% of its current age—some of the universe's earliest stars and galaxies had already formed. Astronomers have long predicted that much of the gas surrounding these young galaxies must have remained relatively pristine, compos
As our telescopes have improved and we’ve been able to peer farther back in time, we’ve begun finding more fascinating features of the universe. But one thing we definitely haven’t found yet is Population III (Pop III) stars. These were the earliest stars in the universe, formed completely from pristine hydrogen and he
Early galaxies were already seeding the cosmos with heavy elements, such as oxygen and carbon, just 500 million years after the Big Bang.
Researchers have used some of the most detailed simulations yet of the early universe to investigate how the first stars and galaxies formed. Led by researchers at the University of Bath in the U.K., alongside collaborators at the University of Chicago in the U.S. and the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris in France, th
New observations of the composition of distant galaxies offer insights into the earliest phases of the universe and confirm decades of scientific understanding of the elements and particles produced by the Big Bang, according to a new study.
Large Binocular Telescope data cut helium measurement uncertainty threefold. Helium, a light chemical element, carries clues to what the universe was like during its first five minutes. To read that record, an international team turned to 15 small, remote galaxies whose chemistry has changed very little, preserving a c
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