Galaxy Group Illuminates Ancient Cosmic History
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Updates/News_from_the_Universe/STScI_20200205-AncientGalaxies_1280x720 (1).mp4
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Text, News from the Universe. February 5, 2020
Galaxy Group Illuminates Ancient Cosmic History. February 5, 2020.
In the universe's early days, light was trapped in a dense hydrogen fog.
During the re-ionization period, intense light from galaxies created transparent bubbles of ionized gas.
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[COSMIC MUSIC]
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A cut-out rendering of the primal universe shows the gaps in the gaseous cloud.
Text, Eventually the bubbles of transparent ionized gas merged, clearing the way for starlight to travel freely, all the way to us. Animation. Credit, M. Alvarez, R. Kaehler and T. Abel, 2009.
A trio of galaxies named E G S 7 7 is the first and oldest group caught in the act of clearing out this cosmic fog.
Galaxy group E G S 7 7 on a star map.
Text, Similar re-ionization bubbles from this era will be rare and hard to find.
The star map is rotated and we move into the deep field of galaxies.
Text, Future missions like the James Webb Space Telescope and W F I R S T will continue working to illuminate this important period in cosmic history.
This news was brought to you in part by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt MD