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Astronomers detect stellar ashes at dawn of time
April 10, 2002Using a powerful instrument on a telescope in Hawaii, UK astronomers have found ashes from a generation of stars that died over 10 billion years ago. This is the first time that the tell-tale cosmic dust has been detected at such an early stage in the evolution of the universe.
Dr. Kate Isaak of Cambridge University will be announcing these exciting new results at the National Astronomy Meeting in Bristol on 11th April 2002.
Using the SCUBA (Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array) camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, the team of British astronomers observed a sample of the most distant quasars known, to detect their primeval `host` galaxies. The submillimetre wavelength radiation detected by SCUBA comes from large amounts of cool dust, a substance formed in supernovae and/or the atmospheres of old stars.
Team leader Dr. Robert Priddey (Imperial College) said "These quasars are the most distant submillimetre sources known. We`re looking more than nine-tenths of the way back to the birth of the universe in the Big Bang."
The quasars are extremely far from us, as measured by their very high redshifts of 5-6. These huge distances mean that their light was emitted when the universe was less than a tenth of its current age -- a mere billion years after the Big Bang. Consequently, the host galaxies are caught when they are extremely young, and when astronomers might expect to see a burst of star formation.
Dr. Priddey explained "It`s amazing enough that these quasars, powered by billion solar mass black holes, should already exist only a billion years after the Big Bang. That these quasars also appear to contain so much dust yields important clues to the formation of massive galaxies in the youthful cosmos."
Although it is not yet known whether the dust in these quasars is heated by hot, young stars within the galaxy, or directly by the quasar itself, the very existence of the dust and its constituent elements such as silicon and carbon implies that a large mass of stars have already been born, grown old and expired, within only a billion years of the Big Bang.
Dr. Isaak said "These observations of very distant quasars are part of a programme looking at the submillimetre emission of quasars from low to high redshift. If we hunt for ever higher redshift quasars, we might catch the epoch at which the first dust forms."
Team member Dr. Richard McMahon (University of Cambridge) added "The stars that made the carbon and silicon in these quasars are probably like the stars that made the carbon in our own bodies. It is very exciting to be able to learn when the chemical elements in our bodies were made. These quasars seem to be forming stars at a rate of around 1000 stars like the Sun per year."
Royal Astronomical Society (RAS)
Team leader Dr. Robert Priddey (Imperial College) said "These quasars are the most distant submillimetre sources known. We`re looking more than nine-tenths of the way back to the birth of the universe in the Big Bang."
The quasars are extremely far from us, as measured by their very high redshifts of 5-6. These huge distances mean that their light was emitted when the universe was less than a tenth of its current age -- a mere billion years after the Big Bang. Consequently, the host galaxies are caught when they are extremely young, and when astronomers might expect to see a burst of star formation.
Dr. Priddey explained "It`s amazing enough that these quasars, powered by billion solar mass black holes, should already exist only a billion years after the Big Bang. That these quasars also appear to contain so much dust yields important clues to the formation of massive galaxies in the youthful cosmos."
Although it is not yet known whether the dust in these quasars is heated by hot, young stars within the galaxy, or directly by the quasar itself, the very existence of the dust and its constituent elements such as silicon and carbon implies that a large mass of stars have already been born, grown old and expired, within only a billion years of the Big Bang.
Dr. Isaak said "These observations of very distant quasars are part of a programme looking at the submillimetre emission of quasars from low to high redshift. If we hunt for ever higher redshift quasars, we might catch the epoch at which the first dust forms."
Team member Dr. Richard McMahon (University of Cambridge) added "The stars that made the carbon and silicon in these quasars are probably like the stars that made the carbon in our own bodies. It is very exciting to be able to learn when the chemical elements in our bodies were made. These quasars seem to be forming stars at a rate of around 1000 stars like the Sun per year."
Royal Astronomical Society (RAS)
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Erratic Black Hole Regulates Itself
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NASA's Fermi Telescope Reveals Best-Ever View of Gamma-Ray Sky
A new map combining nearly three months of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is giving astronomers an unprecedented look at the high-energy cosmos. To Fermi's eyes, the universe is ablaze with gamma rays from sources ranging from within the solar system to galaxies billions of light-years away.
Colors of Quasars Reveal a Dusty Universe
The vast expanses of intergalactic space appear to be filled with a haze of tiny, smoke-like "dust" particles that dim the light from distant objects and subtly change their colors, according to a team of astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II).
Astronomers discover link between supermassive black holes and galaxy formation
A pair of astronomers from Texas and Germany have used a telescope at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory together with Hubble Space Telescope and many other telescopes around the world to uncover new evidence that the largest, most massive galaxies in the universe and the supermassive black holes at their hearts grew together over time.
Mystery of missing hydrogen
Something vital is missing in the far distant reaches of the Universe: hydrogen - the raw material for stars, planets and possible life.
Serendipitous observations reveal rare event in life of distant quasar
A bit of serendipity has given astronomers a surprise view of a never-before-observed event in the birth of a galaxy.
Colossal Black Holes Common in the Early Universe
Astronomers think that many - perhaps all - galaxies in the universe contain massive black holes at their centers. New observations with the Submillimeter Array now suggest that such colossal black holes were common even 12 billion years ago, when the universe was only 1.7 billion years old and galaxies were just beginning to form.
Young Galaxy's Magnetism Surprises Astronomers
Astronomers have made the first direct measurement of the magnetic field in a young, distant galaxy, and the result is a big surprise.
BOSS: the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) uses a 2.5-meter telescope with a wider field of view than any other large telescope, located on a mountaintop in New Mexico called Apache Point and devoted solely to mapping the universe.
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