'First Light' and the Universe's early years
I've just returned from a University Cosmology lecture that introduced a phenomenon called 'First Light'. It appears to be coming from Hubble observations over the last 5-10 years (so, very recent). I have never heard of such a theory.
The theory says that the Big Bang created all the H and He in the universe in the first three minutes, which then floated around in gaseous form for hundreds of thousands of years.
Now, apparently, gaseous hydrogen does not clump into masses on galactic scales, which means the galxies could not have been formed from this initial state. In other words, we could not get here from there.
The only way hydrogen can clump on that scale is in a plasmic state (protons stripped of their electrons). When a plasma, H clumps nicely at that scale.
So, something happened, somewhere in the first billion years of the universe's life. Some form of energy swept across the universe, converting all the H from gas to plasma. This also turned the universe opaque, since plasma transmits light poorly. This is corroborated by the very deep space observance of some sort of opaque shell at the 12.5Gy distance.
In this plasmic state, the H was able to clump on galactic scales, subsequently converting back to gaseous state again, and leaving a universe the way we see it now.
I have never heard of such a theory. But it is both disturbing and exhilerating in that it hints we still have a lot to learn.
The theory says that the Big Bang created all the H and He in the universe in the first three minutes, which then floated around in gaseous form for hundreds of thousands of years.
Now, apparently, gaseous hydrogen does not clump into masses on galactic scales, which means the galxies could not have been formed from this initial state. In other words, we could not get here from there.
The only way hydrogen can clump on that scale is in a plasmic state (protons stripped of their electrons). When a plasma, H clumps nicely at that scale.
So, something happened, somewhere in the first billion years of the universe's life. Some form of energy swept across the universe, converting all the H from gas to plasma. This also turned the universe opaque, since plasma transmits light poorly. This is corroborated by the very deep space observance of some sort of opaque shell at the 12.5Gy distance.
In this plasmic state, the H was able to clump on galactic scales, subsequently converting back to gaseous state again, and leaving a universe the way we see it now.
I have never heard of such a theory. But it is both disturbing and exhilerating in that it hints we still have a lot to learn.