Scientists deciphering universe's earliest signals
Cambridge scientists have taken a big step in decoding a faint radio signal from 100 million years after the Big Bang—a clue to how the first stars lit up the universe.
Their findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, could help us finally understand what happened during the Cosmic Dawn.
What the study found
This special radio signal comes from early stars and black holes giving off ultraviolet and x-ray energy, which changed hydrogen in space.
The study found that x-ray binaries—pairs of black holes or neutron stars—were much more common and brighter back then than we thought, making a real impact on this cosmic signal.
Next steps for scientists
New telescopes like REACH (now being tested) and the Square Kilometer Array will use these models to figure out what those first stars were really like.
By cracking this signal, scientists hope to piece together how our universe's earliest lights shaped everything that came after.