Until the advent of the space telescope and computer simulations, scientists couldn't figure out where and how the universe's first light came from.
Understanding the conditions existing in the early cosmos, beginning just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, could be the most fantastic way to unravel the riddles.
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Computer Simulation Shows How Universe's Light Happened
Around 13 billion years ago, astronomers discovered stunning simulations of the early cosmos filling up with light like 'flickering cosmic fireflies.'
The simulations created by experts at MIT and Harvard show the cosmos evolving from a place of complete blackness to a brilliant, light-filled environment.
This event, known as the epoch of reionization, marked the end of the universe's "dark ages," when there were no galaxies, stars, or planets.
According to The Harvard Gazette, researchers used one of the world's largest supercomputers, the SuperMUC-NG, for 30 million CPU-hours just to develop the new simulations.
The breathtaking movie is part of a vast set of simulations detailed in three publications published in the Royal Astronomical Society's Monthly Notices. These studies were fortunately obtained by the Daily Mail.
Thesan is the name given to the simulations after the Etruscan goddess of dawn.
The cosmos was a black and homogeneous realm during the early stages of cosmic reionization. The cosmic evolution during these early 'dark ages' is quite simple to compute for physicists.
However, gravity begins to pull and crush everything together later in its existence, at first slowly, but subsequently so quickly that calculations become too tricky.
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The researchers wanted to integrate as many significant components from the early cosmos as possible to fully replicate cosmic reionization.
They began by using a galaxy formation model built by their respective groups, which has been proved to accurately mimic the features and populations of evolving galaxies.
They then created a new algorithm to account for how light from galaxies and stars interacts with and reionizes the surrounding gas, which they describe as a "very intricate process."
Finally, the team incorporated a preliminary model of cosmic dust, which is another element unique to early universe simulations. This early model seeks to explain how the creation of galaxies in the early, sparse cosmos is influenced by tiny grains of material.
Where Did The Universe's Light Start
According to Big Think, researchers working on the Planck project stated in 2013 that they had discovered how the first light must have formed.
When protons and electrons collide, hydrogen is formed, which emits light. About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, this is how the universe's first light was born. The cosmos soon began to expand at a breakneck speed. The wavelengths of the first light were stretched out, resulting in microwaves, which are now known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).
The Planck project has now examined several regions of the CMB for highly tiny changes in density and temperature, as well as how it interacts with neighboring dust clouds and other substances, in order to provide clues about how the universe evolved.
The cosmos flattened and cooled as this hot, dense soup of radiation and particles expanded. We're left with the cosmos we know today, which has the same conditions throughout, though denser in some parts and less dense in others. A thick cloud arose as more hydrogen gas gathered, blocking all light.
The universe evolved in complete darkness for hundreds of millions of years. The first stars, star clusters, and superstar clusters arose from within it.
Stars emit a form of radiation known as the Lyman continuum, which reionized the hydrogen over the following billion years, lifting the "dark" period and allowing light to move freely once more.
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