The recent data from the European Space Agency’sPlanck space telescoperevealed that the earliest known virtuoso in the universe belike appeared 150 million years later than antecedently believed . The Planck blank space scope launch in May 2009 . Though the spacecraft ’s science commission ended in the declivity of 2013 , scientist are still sifting through the enormous amount of information collected during those four and a half years about the cosmic microwave background ( CMB ) , which is leftover radiation from the Big Bang that first appeared when the universe was 380,000 eld old .
The CMB also provides clues about when the first light visible in the world appear , following an event call reionization . The universe was initially completely dark due to heavy , unintelligible hydrogen that predominate a period suitably known as the cosmic “ glowering ages . ” Reionization in effect clear this blanket of atomic number 1 up , allowing photon to move freely . As the earliest stars and coltsfoot form and satiate the universe with light , the photons facilitate the atomic number 1 gasolene dissipate and revert to free protons and electrons . These atom then began to interact with the CMB , polarizing it . In 2006 , data from theWilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe(WMAP ) indicated that reionization began 420 million years after the Big Bang . However , the newly secrete Planck observations do n’t corroborate that figure . or else , it is much more likely that this summons occur when the population was about 550 million year old .
" After the CMB was released , the universe was still very unlike from the one we live in today , and it took a long fourth dimension until the first star were able-bodied to form , " astrophysicist Marco Bersanelli of Università degli Studi di Milano , Italy , said in apress exit . " Planck ’s observance of the CMB polarization now secernate us that these ' Dark Ages ' ended some 550 million years after the Big Bang — more than 100 million years later than previously thought . While these 100 million years may seem paltry liken to the universe of discourse ’s age of almost 14 billion years , they make a significant deviation when it comes to the formation of the first stars . "
In increase to objurgate the years of the early stars in the cosmos , the Planck data alsosupported previous resultson other topics , let in respective sum of money of dark energy , drear affair , and average topic throughout the population .
" These are only a few highlights from the examination of Planck ’s observations of the CMB polarization , which is revealing the sky and the Universe in a firebrand Modern means , ” explained Planck scientist Jan Tauber . " This is an fabulously copious data place and the harvest of discoveries has just get down . "
[ Via : NewScientist ]
