Discovery: Pristine Primordial Gas 12 Billion Years Old
Thursday, November 10, 2011 - 15:50
in Physics & Chemistry
Scientists have found pristine clouds of the primordial gas that formed just after the Big Bang and it matches the composition made by predictions, which adds to direct evidence in support of the modern cosmological explanation for the origins of elements in the universe. Only the lightest elements, mostly hydrogen and helium, were created in the Big Bang. A few hundred million years passed before clumps of this primordial gas condensed to form the first stars, where heavier elements were forged. But astronomers have always detected "metals" (their term for all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium) wherever they have looked in the universe. read more