A group of researchers led by Judd Bowman from the American University of Arizona has managed to find possible evidence that the first stars in the universe existed as early as 180 million years after the Big Bang. The research results are published in the journal The Nature.
Scientists conducted a study of the sky in the range from 50 to 100 megahertz using the EDGES ground station. The spectra obtained during the experiment were processed and calibrated taking into account many factors.
“The discovery of this subtle signal was a giant window into the early universe for us. Telescopes, in principle, cannot get photographs of such ancient and distant stars, but the radio waves generated during their "awakening" helped us know when this happened, "Bowman said.
According to the scientist, the first stars were not like modern ones. They did not contain elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Their size was not limited by anything, and the mass could be more than the mass of the Sun by 400 times.
Earlier it was believed that the first stars appeared in the Universe 400-500 million years after the Big Bang. New data may call into question the current theory of the formation of the universe.