![]() See also our Q&A with John Mather about the Big Bang. These are some of the questions Webb was designed to help us to answer. stars that fused the existing hydrogen atoms into more helium) looked like, and exactly when these first stars formed is not known. Exactly what the universe's first light (i.e. The universe was no longer opaque! However, it would still be some time (perhaps up to a few hundred million years post-Big Bang!) before the first sources of light would start to form, ending the cosmic dark ages. These ionized atoms of hydrogen and helium attracted electrons, turning them into neutral atoms - which allowed light to travel freely for the first time, since this light was no longer scattering off free electrons. When the universe started cooling, the protons and neutrons began combining into ionized atoms of hydrogen (and eventually some helium). The Early UniverseĪfter the Big Bang, the universe was like a hot soup of particles (i.e. In fact the universe was a pretty dark place. But at that point there were no stars and galaxies. we haven't yet! The microwave COBE and WMAP satellites saw the heat signature left by the Big Bang about 380,000 years after it occurred. Why is a powerful infrared observatory key to seeing the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe? Why do we even want to see the first stars and galaxies that formed? One reason is. Webb is able to see back to when the first bright objects (stars and galaxies) were forming in the early universe.
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