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Hint of Earliest Stars: Greatest Fireworks Ever Still Beyond View
By Robert Roy Britt
Senior Science Writer
posted: 02:00 pm ET
08 January 2002
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star_births_020108 WASHINGTON D.C. - The grandest fireworks display in the history of the universe played out in reverse is how researchers are describing data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope that shows that most stars were formed in a brief period early in the Universe's history that was followed by a relative drought of activity that continues today. Using images of the deep and distant universe provided by the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers found that a "torrential firestorm" of star birth "abruptly lit up the pitch-dark heavens just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang," researchers said today at a press conference at NASA headquarters. Though star birth continues today, it does so at a relative trickle, the research indicates. The evidence, which needs to be verified, is counter to previous studies that indicated star birth ramped up to a peak that came when the universe was about half its current age. The new study was led by Kenneth M. Lanzetta of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and will be presented in the Astrophysical Journal. Lanzetta said today that observations simply have not recorded the bulk of the ultraviolet light which represents the ancient activity. He didn't see it, either. Some 90 percent of the light from the early universe is missing from current surveys, Lanzetta said. But he did examine what he thinks is the tip of an iceberg of activity. In Hubble images, Lanzetta found unexpectedly bright knots of blue-white light that represent hot, newborn stars. He figures these stars are embedded in galaxies that can't be seen because the rest of their stars are too faint. He likened it to spotting a few bright lights on a Christmas tree from a distance and trying to infer the nature of the tree's decorations from the limited information. Lanzetta's analysis is based on assumptions about conditions in the early universe and needs to be confirmed by further observations, he said. The primordial fireworks display, if it exists, should be visible to space-based telescopes that are planned for the future, including NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope. Meanwhile, Lanzetta plans to use a new camera that will be installed on Hubble this spring to try and spot some of the earlier stars. More about Deep Space: Astronomy News by TopicThis Week in Science & Astronomy: News Briefs
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