After 12 years of experimental effort, a team of scientists, led by Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration astronomer Judd Bowman, has detected indications of the earliest stars in the universe. Using radio signals, the detection provides the first evidence for the oldest ancestors in our cosmic family tree, born a mere 180 million years after the universe began.
An observation profile centred around 78Mhz in the sky-averaged spectrum was discovered. “What’s happening in this period is that some of the radiation from the very first stars is starting to allow hydrogen to be seen," said Rogers. "It’s causing hydrogen to start absorbing the background radiation, so you start seeing it in silhouette, at particular radio frequencies. This is the first real signal that stars are starting to form, and starting to affect the medium around them.”
