When did the first stars coalesce, and how exactly did their light ripple out to profoundly transform the cosmos?
These are no small questions, of course. Practically everything is touched by the hazy details of how this cosmic dawn broke across the universe, ranging from the formation of chemical elements, planets and galaxies to the still-mysterious mechanics of dark matter and dark energy that dictate the large-scale structure and fate of reality itself. Which is why astronomers and cosmologists have labored for generations in search of definitive answers. Those answers have proved elusive, however, in large part because most cosmic observations rely on starlight, whereas studying the kindling of the first stars demands probing back to epochs when essentially all was dark.
Now, however, certainty at last seems close at hand, as detailed in our top story, which appears in Scientific American's June print edition. Cutting-edge radio telescopes are detecting and mapping the faint glow of the neutral hydrogen—the raw ingredient of future galaxies, stars, planets and people—that eons ago suffused the cosmos. And what they're finding is, to say the least, illuminating.
Thoughts? Questions? Let me know via e-mail (lbillings@sciam.com), Twitter or Bluesky.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!
—Lee Billings
