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Hollywood has nothing on science when it comes to unexpected twists and unexpected discoveries. A team of astronomers learned this lesson by searching for the oldest stars in the universe. Their experience has not only been able to detect ancient stars, but it has also provided new clues to the most mysterious things in the universe: dark matter.
A window into the primitive universe
The story begins with looking back in time. By nature, astronomers always do, because the light we see from distant stars takes time to reach Earth. It can take several years to reach us from the nearest stars beyond the sun and up to billions of years for stars in distant galaxies. According to Sky & Telescope, a team of US astronomers set out to detect the oldest stars in the universe, more than 13 billion light years away
because universe is expanding, light is going through this huge distance. as radio waves. Detecting the weak signal of ancient stars is tricky because electronic detectors also produce radio waves, adds the Sky & Telescope
To reduce background noise, astronomers install in the Australian Outback their instrument, experience to detect the global era of reionization signature (or EDGES), which looks like a metal table more than a telescope. The goal was not to take snapshots of individual stars, but rather to detect the radio signal stretched from groups of these ancient stars.
In fact the detective work consisted of finding revealing indications of missing light. , which results from a process called absorption, according to Sky & Telescope.
After years of effort, astronomers have managed to detect the oldest stars in the universe. The results show that these first stars appeared when the universe was only 180 million years old.
But something has also surprised astronomers. The absorption was stronger than expected, which means that the old interstellar gas that starlight went through was colder than expected. Something had stolen the gas from some of its energy. But what?
A heavy mystery
Enter dark matter. As Nola Taylor Redd observed on Space.com, astronomers have known for decades that most of the material – about 80% by mass – is not like the ordinary matter found here on Earth, from other planets or even distant stars. [19659004NotwiththesubstantialmatismareexistedthatmaybelievemeasuringthecalculationattachmentofgalaxiesthatthegalaxisisbeenappliedbythosecombinedcollectionofthesandstarsandplanetsLamasseisimplementingthesefamilythatwecaneasilydetect
Is dark matter the answer?
The discovery of the oldest stars has also given us some tantalizing allusions to dark matter. As Sky & Telescope explained if anything unfamiliar was draining the gas energy surrounding these early stars, or cooling it, as suggested by EDGES's results, dark matter is the most likely candidate. It means that it can interact with ordinary matter and has probably done in the early days of the universe.
As always on the frontiers of science, these results are still provisional. On the way to understanding the universe, the only thing we can be sure of is that more twists are sure to come.
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