Astronomers detect early Universe heating ahead of star formation

Astronomers in Australia have found early Universe was warm before stars formed, according to a study published recently, reported Xinhua.

Researchers at the International Center of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) were searching for the elusive "Epoch of Reionization," a period early in the Universe's history that is predicted by theory but is yet to be detected using radio telescopes, according to a statement released recently by Australia's Curtin University, which led the research.

The Epoch of Reionization signifies the end of the Cosmic Dark Ages, roughly a billion years after the Big Bang, when the gas between galaxies shifted from opaque to transparent, allowing light from the first stars and galaxies to travel throughout the Universe, it said.

The team used the Murchison Widefield Array telescope (MWA) located at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization's Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country in the state of Western Australia.

They obtained the first evidence of "gas heating up between galaxies nearly 800 million years after the Big Bang," said ICRAR researcher Ridhima Nunhokee, lead author of the study's first phase, published in The Astrophysical Journal.

"The research suggests this heating is likely driven by the energy from early sources of X-rays from early black holes and stellar remnants spreading through the Universe," said Professor Cathryn Trott, who leads the Epoch of Reionisation project at ICRAR.