And then there was light
In the beginning, there was no light.After the Big Bang created the universe 13 billion years ago, the universe remained enshrouded in darkness. Based on observations of the radiation left over from the Big Bang, astronomers have theorized that several hundred million years after this event, gravity caused hydrogen and helium particles to condense into clouds. The energy from this activity eventually ignited those clouds, setting in motion a chain of events that led to the birth of the first stars. Although the transition between the so-called cosmic dark ages and the birth of stars and galaxies may explain the origin and evolution of many celestial objects, astronomers know very little about this period.Recently, two astronomers conducted an experiment to try to learn more about this transitional period, which is known as the Epoch of Reionization, or EOR. Because identifying any light from the earliest galaxies is nearly impossible, Alan...