Publisher's Summary

Space has a reputation for being cold and dark, but out in the comparatively empty void between galaxies, these escaped particles of light collectively produce a diffuse glimmer everywhere.

Bright New Universe by Jack Williamson on Apple Books

Rather, the team took advantage of hundreds of cosmic accidents. Huge black holes lie in the center of most galaxies, and some of the most monstrous let unimaginably violent jets of gamma rays rip into space—an area smaller than our solar system slinging out as much energy as our whole galaxy. When these jets happen to be pointed straight at Earth, astronomers call them blazars. The team analyzed nine years of Fermi data containing the light from more than blazars and one gamma ray burst and found that the rays were getting weaker as they traveled, plowing through the background light that fills the universe like headlights cutting through fog.

The thicker the fog, the dimmer the headlights, so comparing blazars near and far revealed the brightness of the interfering background light. And since the gamma rays took billions of years to get here, the team could also see the background light as it appeared throughout the past.


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It would glow with the brightness of a watt light bulb viewed from 2. Its dimness speaks to a classic paradox in cosmology: Stars formed slowly at first and then faster and faster until peaking about three to four billion years after the big bang, and then falling off as star-stuff ran low and galaxies moved farther apart.

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Their work builds on decades of theoretical estimates and both ground- and space-based attempts to catch the photons directly. But with light from the sun bouncing off local dust particles outnumbering the background light to 1, it was like hunting for fireflies at noon. There were still no stars, so the night sky would have been uniformly and totally dark. However it would have still been very hot and baked any human observer with heat like a very hot oven. As the universe continued to expand, the sky would have remained dark but the temperature would have become more tolerable.

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It would take another 4. Then another 1m years to reach the temperature of a nice cup of tea, or a warm bath. You could have worn summer clothes for another 5m years, but it would have started to get a bit chilly around 15m years after the Big Bang, and a jumper would be required.

Freezing temperatures — minus figures — began at about 16m years. After about m years, the universe had cooled to the temperature of liquid nitrogen. But if you could have somehow survived these freezing temperatures and an ever cooling universe, then after about m years the night sky would have changed. From its uniform and formless beginnings, matter was slowly clumping together, because of gravity, in the dark.

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In the clumps of matter, a twinkling would have appeared and, at least in some small patches, like the one we now live in, light and warmth returned for a second time. This was when the first stars began to form, and our familiar night sky was born. Geniuses, Heroes and Saints: Pets in Victorian paintings — Egham, Surrey. Available editions United Kingdom. Timeline of the universe.

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Thomas Kitching , UCL. The night sky in microwaves.

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COBE Satellite view of the current microwave sky, in false colour and uncorrected for the motion of the sun about our galaxy. The first stars in the universe turned on about m years after the Big Bang. Animation frame by WMAP. Astronomy Big Bang Universe Light.


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We produce articles written by researchers and academics. Be part of The Conversation. The Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy here seen in infrared light, but it looks different when viewed at other wavelengths. Super-black feathers on these guys are like looking into a dark cave. Expert Database Find experts with knowledge in: