First Direct Observation of Primordial Gas

[Schneibster]

I expect immediate parody threads, I can think of at least three right off the top of my head.

Astrophysicists have looked into quasars in Leo and Ursa Major, with the Keck telescope on top of Mauna Kea on the big island of Hawaii, and have detected the absorption spectrum of radiation from primordial gas clouds formed during the nucleosynthesis phase of the Big Bang. For the first time, we are able to directly measure the composition of such gas clouds, and it matches the predictions of the Big Bang theory exactly. Significantly, later gas clouds have less deuterium, because being heavier it was collected more readily into the primordial solar nebulae of the first stars to be formed after the Big Bang was over, and burned up into helium and other heavier elements; in addition, such clouds contain those other elements, in concentrations impossible coming directly from the Big Bang. Because of this, this is the first time that direct evidence of the primordial concentration of deuterium has been available, and direct confirmation of the expected relative concentrations of deuterium and protium (the name for the one-proton, one-electron "ordinary hydrogen" isotope) directly and unambiguously supports the Big Bang theory and theories of the formation of primordial solar nebulae and primordial stars. This is very significant confirmation of what religionists have been claiming cannot ever be proven: that the Big Bang happened. It can be; it has been. Yet another gap they were trying to hide their super magic sky daddy in has been closed forever. Wonder how long they'll keep lying about it.

The gas clouds' absorption spectra were measured by observing the light of quasars, which emit continuous-spectrum light. Only two quasars have been found so far that are shining through such clouds; they are expected to be very rare even by the era of the quasars, which was mostly over by the time the universe was half as old as it is now. Spectral lines in the quasars' light can be differentiated from the spectral lines introduced by the clouds because of their different redshifts, and the total composition of the clouds can be determined by looking for all the spectral lines at that redshift. This confirms that these clouds contain only protium and deuterium (although lithium was also created during nucleosynthesis, it is in amounts so small they do not leave a spectral signature in this method).

Excellent SciAm article on the discovery. Right up the road, too; UC Santa Cruz. Near you, Mai!

[maiforpeace]

Excellent SciAm article on the discovery. Right up the road, too; UC Santa Cruz. Near you, Mai!

Fascinating stuff I agree...I can barely keep up with the science, but I listen into the conversations on the subject while hiking in my hiking group. One of the hiking group members is a colleague of Michele's and she talks about it a lot.