A radio signal from the beginning of the universe could reveal how everything began
The signal – known as the 21-centimetre signal – could finally let us understand how the first stars and galaxies switched on, and brought the universe from darkness to light.
'This is a unique opportunity to learn how the universe's first light emerged from the darkness,' said co-author Anastasia Fialkov from Cambridge University, in a statement. 'The transition from a cold, dark universe to one filled with stars is a story we're only beginning to understand.'
The signal comes to us from more than 13 billion years ago, just a hundred million years after the Big Bang. The faint glow is created by hydrogen atoms that fill up the space between regions of space where stars are being formed.
Scientists now believe they will be able to use the nature of that signal to better understand the early universe. They will do that with a radio antenna called REACH – the Radio Experiment for the Analysis of Cosmic Hydrogen – which will try and capture radio signals to reveal data about the beginnings of the universe.
To better understand how that project might work, researchers created a model that predicted how REACH as well as another project called the Square Kilometre Array will be able to provide information about the masses and other details of the first stars.
'We are the first group to consistently model the dependence of the 21-centimetre signal of the masses of the first stars, including the impact of ultraviolet starlight and X-ray emissions from X-ray binaries produced when the first stars die,' said Professor Fialkov.
'These insights are derived from simulations that integrate the primordial conditions of the universe, such as the hydrogen-helium composition produced by the Big Bang.'
'The predictions we are reporting have huge implications for our understanding of the nature of the very first stars in the Universe,' said co-author Eloy de Lera Acedo, Principal Investigator of the REACH telescope.
'We show evidence that our radio telescopes can tell us details about the mass of those first stars and how these early lights may have been very different from today's stars.
'Radio telescopes like REACH are promising to unlock the mysteries of the infant Universe, and these predictions are essential to guide the radio observations we are doing from the Karoo, in South Africa.'
The work is described in a new paper, 'Determination of the mass distribution of the first stars from the 21-cm signal', published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Study Names 1 Drink That Could Help Slow Down Aging
Coffee addicts may feel vindicated after seeing the results of a recent study. A good number of people are unable to start their day properly without a nice, warm cup of joe. The caffeinated beverage often delivers the energizing jolt that many need to wake up in the morning. But coffee also comes with more long-lasting benefits, according to a recent study published in the European Journal of Nutrition. The research showed that consistent coffee consumption by those in midlife may slow down physical frailty that usually comes with old age. The study conducted in Amsterdam analyzed the coffee-drinking habits of people aged 40 to 65, the age range for those in midlife. It measured frailty by assessing five components: weight loss, weakness, exhaustion, slow gait speed and low physical activity It determined that test subjects who drank at least four cups of coffee daily fought off frailty at a better rate as they aged compared to those who didn't. While the four-cup figure seems like way too much caffeine, the study based it off a small cup size of just 4.2 fluid ounces, a much more common amount in Europe. Americans consume an average coffee cup size that's more than double that. Coffee brings with it several positive effects on the human body that help combat against frailty such as muscle mass preservation, oxidative stress reduction and support for one's metabolism. Several studies have also associated coffee consumption with a longer life span. Caffeine connoisseurs now have more reasons than ever to get the brew going early in the morning, so long as they avoid drinking their coffee on an empty Names 1 Drink That Could Help Slow Down Aging first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 8, 2025
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Why Rocket Lab Stock Skyrocketed 33.5% Last Month and Has Kept Surging in July
A combination of bullish catalysts helped Rocket Lab stock reach a new record high in June. Rocket Lab landed a new deal with the European Space Agency and successfully completed two new rocket launches. Rocket Lab stock has risen even higher in July's trading thanks to analyst coverage and excitement about its tech. 10 stocks we like better than Rocket Lab › Aided by bullish momentum for the broader market, Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB) stock posted big gains in June's trading. The company's share price rocketed 33.5% higher in the month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 climbed 5%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 6.6%. Comments from a Federal Reserve official last month pointed to an increased likelihood that the central banking authority will deliver a cut for the benchmark interest rate this month, and the development paved the way for the stock market to see big gains. In addition to the bullish backdrop for the market at large, Rocket Lab stock saw big gains in conjunction with business-specific news and positive coverage from analysts. On June 10, Cantor Fitzgerald published new coverage on Rocket Lab. Andres Sheppard, the firm's lead analyst on the stock, reiterated an overweight rating and raised his one-year price target from $29 per share to $35 per share. Sheppard pointed to Rocket Lab's successful launch history, different rocket types, and launch sites as strong competitive advantages. He also noted that Rocket Lab could benefit from the worsening relationship between President Trump and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Late in the month, Rocket Lab announced that it had landed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch two satellites. The news prompted a substantial rally for the stock, and shares moved even higher after the company announced the launches of its 67th and 68th Electron rockets. The two launches occurred at the same launch site within 48 hours, marking the company's fastest-ever turnaround time for a launch. The news pushed Rocket Lab stock to a new record high, and it's kept climbing from there. Rocket Lab stock has continued on its upward trajectory this month. As of this writing, the company's share price is up 8.2% across July's trading. In addition to continued excitement surrounding its opportunities in the space industry, the stock has gotten a lift from bullish analyst coverage. In a note published July 2, KeyBanc maintained an overweight rating on Rocket Lab and raised its price target on the stock from $29 per share to $40 per share. As of this writing, KeyBanc's latest price target implies additional upside of roughly 3%. Rocket Lab now has a valuation of roughly $17.9 billion and is trading at approximately 31 times this year's expected sales. While the recent rally for the stock may raise questions about whether the company's valuation has become unreasonably stretched, the business looks poised to grow at a rapid clip in the near term and seemingly has huge expansion opportunities over the long haul. Before you buy stock in Rocket Lab, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Rocket Lab wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $695,481!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $969,935!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,053% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of July 7, 2025 Keith Noonan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Rocket Lab. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Rocket Lab Stock Skyrocketed 33.5% Last Month and Has Kept Surging in July was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Gizmodo
5 hours ago
- Gizmodo
New Research Bolsters Freaky Theory That Earth Sits in a Giant Cosmic Void
Images of the cosmos, such as the James Webb Space Telescope's deep space snapshot, make space look chock-full of stuff. In the grand scheme of things, it is, but all those stars, galaxies, planets, and other celestial objects may not be as uniformly distributed as photos make them look. The fact is, space is likely peppered with bubbles of relative emptiness, and some astronomers believe we're sitting inside of one. A growing body of evidence suggests that our entire Milky Way galaxy is located within an enormous cosmic void. Most recently, researchers found that sound waves from the early universe—essentially the sound of the Big Bang—support this idea. This work, led by Indranil Banik, a cosmologist at the University of Portsmouth, proposes a solution for the Hubble tension: one of the biggest mysteries in the universe. Banik and his colleagues published their findings in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in May. He has been working on the Hubble tension for the past five years. This puzzling cosmological problem stems from two differing values calculated for the Hubble constant, which represents the expansion rate of today's universe. 'The Hubble tension is a mismatch between the rate at which we expect the universe to be expanding—based on extrapolating observations of the infant universe forward to today, using the standard cosmological model—and the rate at which we actually observe it to be expanding when we look at the nearby universe,' Banik told Gizmodo. It's really a mismatch between theory and observations.' Basically, galaxies and stars in the local, more recent universe appear to be moving away faster than the Hubble constant predicts. This defies the standard cosmological model, which describes how the universe grows and evolves. It also throws the age of the universe into question, as astronomers need the Hubble constant to extrapolate how much time has passed since the Big Bang. Banik believes the local void theory can offer a solution. If our galaxy is located inside a bubble of relatively empty space, gravity would pull nearby matter toward the higher density exterior of the void, he explained in a Royal Astronomical Society statement. As the void empties out, the velocity of objects moving away from us would be larger than if the void were not there, thus giving the appearance of a faster local expansion rate, Banik said. For this to make sense, our solar system would need to be near the center of a void about two billion light-years wide with a density about 20% lower than the average density of the universe (to be clear, a void isn't just empty space—it's a region of the universe with fewer galaxies and less matter than average). This theoretical low-density region has become known as the KBC void. Multiple studies have supported its existence, including several authored by Banik. Still, the local void theory remains controversial because the void doesn't fit with the standard model of cosmology, which states that the matter that makes up today's universe should be more uniformly spread out on such large scales. The KBC void 'is too large and too deep for the standard model of cosmology, where the chance of us randomly finding ourselves in such a void is about one in a billion,' Banik told Gizmodo. 'So we would need to adjust the model such that structure on scales beyond about one hundred million light-years grows faster than the model predicts.' His most recent study looked at baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs). These are a pattern of wrinkles in the density distribution of galaxy clusters spread across the universe. Banik likened them to sound waves from the Big Bang. BAOs provide an independent way to measure the expansion rate of the universe and how fast that rate has changed throughout cosmic history. These 'sound waves' act as a sort of standard ruler, and astronomers can use the ruler's angular size to chart the history of cosmic expansion, according to Banik. He and his colleagues considered all available BAO measurements over the last 20 years. Their work showed that a local void model is about one hundred million times more likely than a standard cosmological model without a local void. This is strong evidence to suggest that we are, indeed, living inside a cosmic void, but it isn't definitive proof. Banik is also working with supernovae data to investigate one of the main pitfalls of the local void theory. 'Any kind of local or late-time solution to the Hubble tension implies that in the more distant universe, there wasn't a Hubble tension,' he explained. 'Supernovae data seem to suggest that the Hubble tension actually does persist out to higher redshift.' If he can find evidence to show that the Hubble tension disappears beyond the local universe, that would be a breakthrough for the local void theory. For now, though, this cosmic conundrum will remain unresolved.
