Very Early Galaxies Shone Much Brighter Than Previous Expectations Says Researchers

[Judi Lynn]

14 May 2019, 7:00 am EDT By Diane Samson Tech Times



An artist's illustration of one of the earliest galaxies in the
universe. The Spitzer Space Telescope observed the sky for
200 hours to capture light that have traveled 13 billion
years to reach Earth.
( NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Spitzer/P. Oesch/S. De Barros/I.Labbe )


NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope peeked into the ancient history of the universe by studying some of the first galaxies to appear after the Big Bang.

In a study, a team of researchers reported that some galaxies that formed in the early universe 13 billion years ago are brighter than expected. They believe that the new findings can offer clues to the Epoch of Reionization, the point when the universe turned into a bright starscape.

Far Back Into The History Of The Universe
The Spitzer Space Telescope looked at two regions of space for over 200 hours to collect light that have traveled across the universe for 13 billion years before it reached Earth. The researchers also used archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope. They published the study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The team observed 135 distant galaxies that are bright in wavelengths of infrared lights that are produced by ionizing radiation interacting with hydrogen and oxygen. This suggested that the distant galaxies were filled with massive stars that are mostly hydrogen and helium, and smaller amounts of heavy elements such as nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen.

These ancient stars are not the first to form in the universe, but they among the first generations.

More:
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/243249/20190514/very-early-galaxies-shone-much-brighter-than-previous-expectations-says-researchers.htm