Scientists find faintest early universe galaxy
Q. Researchers have confirmed the faintest early universe galaxy to indicate when the cosmic dark ages ended through a process called ______.- Published on 25 May 16a. Cosmic reorganisation
b. Cosmic reionisation
c. Cosmic rescheduling
d. None of the above
ANSWER: Cosmic reionisation
An international team of scientists has detected and confirmed the faintest early-universe galaxy ever.
- This finding that can help explain how the "cosmic dark ages" ended.
- Using the WM Keck Observatory on the summit on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, the researchers detected the galaxy as it was 13 billion years ago.
- According to Tommaso Treu, professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, the discovery could be a step toward unraveling one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy -- how a period known as the "cosmic dark ages" ended.
- Eventually, when there were enough stars, they might have been able to ionize all of the intergalactic hydrogen and create the universe as we see it now. That process, called cosmic reionization, happened about 13 billion years ago but scientists have so far been unable to determine whether there were enough stars to do it or whether more exotic sources, like gas falling onto supermassive black holes, might have been responsible.
- Gravitational lensing was first predicted by famous theoretical physicist Albert Einstein.
