June 21, 2009

Scientists closer to identify mystery light that lit up universe

Sydney, June 21: Scientists in Australia are getting closer to identify the mystery light that lit up the universe.

The universe was covered in a thick fog of neutral hydrogen gas thirteen billion years ago.

However, astronomers have not been able to establish what led the fog to lift, allowing the universe to be lit up.

Dr Emma Ryan-Weber, from Swinburne University in Melbourne, and colleagues hypothesided that the fog cleared when the first stars were formed.

To test that theory, they measured the amount of carbon in the early universe. Because carbon indicates the presence of giant stars, this would show how many stars there were and whether they emitted enough light to clear the fog.

The researchers found that there was not as much carbon as they had expected and therefore massive stars were not solely responsible for the universe's illumination.

"There must have been light coming from something else such as an unknown population of quasars or carbon hidden in unobserved states," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ryan-Weber as saying.

ANI

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light! God saw that the light was good, so God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.” There was evening, and there was morning, marking the first day.

Anonymous said...

watery deep? watery deep????? maybe instead of hydrogen gas its water!!!! the universe is a giant ocean and we are sitting on the back of a turtle!