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The very first molecule formed in the universe – helium hydride or HeH + – was detected in space for the first time, says a new study.
The elusive molecule was found in the young planetary nebula NGC 7027, where HeH + is forming by a white dwarf star.
About 13 billion years ago, this molecular bond would have formed as positively charged particles combined with hydrogen atoms in the early quenching universe.
The discovery was made using a telescope that is trained in the Earth's atmosphere and over its effects of damping the signal by a special aircraft.
The discovery, led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Radioastronomy, puts an end to the research of the molecule begun in the late 1970s.
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The first molecule formed in the universe – helium hydride or HeH + – has been detected in space for the first time, says a new study.
While the primitive universe cooled below 4,000 ° K (3,727 ° C) about 13 billion years ago, the light elements produced by the Big Bang began to combine.
Neutral helium atoms and ionized hydrogen – or protons – are thought to have reacted to form HeH + ions.
This would have been the first type of molecular bond to form in the universe.
HeH + would have finally reacted with neutral hydrogen, paving the way for the formation of molecular hydrogen – and at the beginning of the universe as we know it today.
Despite its importance in the history of the universe and its first successful laboratory synthesis in 1925, attempts to detect the molecule in the universe itself had never been successful.
Hunting began in the late 1970s, when chemical models suggested that HeH + might exist in detectable amounts in nearby interstellar nebulae.
"The chemistry of the universe began with HeH +," said lead author and astrophysicist Rolf Güsten, of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy (MPIfR), Germany.
"The lack of definitive proof of its very existence in interstellar space is a dilemma for astronomy for a long time."
About 13 billion years ago, however, helium hydride would have formed as protons combined with hydrogen atoms in an ancient and cold universe (photographed image) .
The inability to spot in space the natural space of HeH + formed had cast doubt on the acquired understanding of the chemical processes thought to have formed in primitive man.
However, past hunts failed only because the available spectrometer technology all used a resolution power too limited to the relevant wavelengths in which the molecule would be found.
With the new technologies, however, the research is finally over.
The discovery was made with the help of a telescope that is transported in the Earth's atmosphere – and its effects of damping the signal – by a special plane (in the photo, the telescope visible through the open door in the rear fuselage of the aircraft)
SOFIA (in the photo of an artist showing the inside of the craft) is able to fly above the majority of the water vapor in the atmosphere, which the presence prevents certain infrared signals from reaching the ground.
Dr. Güsten and his colleagues at MPIfR have teamed up with researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Cologne Universities and Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg in Germany, and the Institute for Millimeter Radioastronomy in Germany. La France.
The international team has been using the high-resolution spectrometer of the German terahertz frequency receiver (GREAT) to detect infrared signals emitted by helium hydride ions. .
The GREAT device is located aboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747 equipped with a reflector telescope.
The scientific research profession is operated by NASA and the German Aerospace Center.
SOFIA is able to fly above most of the water vapor in the atmosphere, preventing some infrared signals from reaching the ground.
"With the recent advancements in terahertz technologies, it is now possible to perform high resolution spectroscopy at the required wavelength in the far infrared," Dr. Güsten added.
The GREAT device is located aboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a modified Boeing 747 equipped with a reflection telescope.
By analyzing data from three of SOFIA's flights, the researchers found unambiguous evidence of HeH + atoms in the direction of the NGC 7027 planetary nebula.
Located about 3000 light-years away from Earth, NGC 7027 is a young, dense and small nebula located in the constellation Cygnus.
The early age of NGC 7027 has made it a likely candidate in which one could find HeH + because it hosts conditions similar to those found in the early universe.
"The discovery of HeH + is a beautiful and dramatic demonstration of Nature's tendency to form molecules," said paper author and molecular astrophysicist David Neufeld of Johns Hopkins University.
"Despite the unhelpful ingredients that are available, a mixture of hydrogen and non-reactive helium, a rare gas, and an environment hostile to thousands of degrees Celsius – a fragile molecule is forming."
Located about 3000 light-years away from Earth, NGC 7027 is a young, dense and small nebula located in the constellation Cygnus. The younger age of NGC 7027 has made it a likely candidate in which one could find HeH + because it hosts conditions similar to those of the early universe.
Planetary nebulae such as NGC 7027 are produced by sun-like stars in the last stage of their life, where they expel large amounts of material to leave behind a warm, dense core called a "white dwarf".
The radiation emitted by these stars – whose temperatures are around 180 000 ° F (100 000 ° C) – causes ionization of the envelope ejected from the star.
It is here that HeH + can form.
The molecule can be detected with the help of appropriate telescopes thanks to its characteristic light emissions, which are the strongest at a wavelength of 0.149 millimeters.
This wavelength is a wavelength that can not penetrate enough into the absorbing layers of the lower Earth's atmosphere to reach ground observatories.
This partly explains why HeH + has so far only been detected using the airborne SOFIA telescope.
The complete results of the study were published in Nature.
WHAT IS THE BIG BANG THEORY?
The Big Bang Theory is a cosmological model, a theory used to describe the beginning and the evolution of our universe.
He says that the universe was in a very hot and dense state before starting to grow 13.7 billion years ago.
This theory is based on fundamental observations.
In 1920, Hubble observed that the distance between galaxies was increasing everywhere in the universe.
The Big Bang Theory is a cosmological model, a theory used to describe the beginning and evolution of our universe, based on observations – including cosmic background radiation (pictured), which looks like a radiation fossil emitted at the beginning of the universe, when it was hot and dense
This means that the galaxies had to be closer to one another in the past.
In 1964, Wilson and Penzias discovered cosmic background radiation, which looks like a radiation fossil emitted at the beginning of the universe, when it was hot and dense.
Cosmic background radiation is observable everywhere in the universe.
The composition of the universe – that is, the number of atoms of different elements – corresponds to the Big Bang theory.
Until now, this theory is the only one that can explain why we observe an abundance of primordial elements in the universe.
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