A radio signal from the beginning of the universe could reveal how everything began
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Space signal could reveal how universe turned from dark to light
- A radio signal from the early universe, known as the 21-centimetre signal, offers a unique opportunity to understand how the first stars and galaxies emerged.
- This faint glow originates from over 13 billion years ago, approximately 100 million years after the Big Bang, and is created by hydrogen atoms.
- Scientists plan to use a radio antenna called REACH (Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen) to capture these signals and gather data about the universe's beginnings.
- Researchers developed a model predicting how REACH and the Square Kilometre Array can provide information about the masses and other details of the first stars.
- The work, published in Nature Astronomy, suggests that radio telescopes like REACH can reveal crucial details about the nature and mass of these early stars, which may have differed from today's stars.