05-25-2022, 07:22 AM
Some more sci-reality from the Kecks this time atop Mauna Kea.
One of the biggest mysteries of the early universe is how galaxies formed and how the star formation rates in those galaxies are so high. One explanation is that there are clouds of cold and diffuse neutral hydrogen (H2) which is virtually invisible but provides the fuel for galaxy and star formation. The team that used Keck used a simple idea - let's use a background light source to illuminate the clouds. Of course, we can't just go there and place a light bulb behind the clouds, they are 11 billion light-years away, but you can find a quasar or an even more cool idea, a galaxy that has its light magnified by more hard to see things (see Einstein) and use that as the background light source.
Guess what? The H2 clouds showed up.
https://www.space.com/elusive-gas-clouds...y-universe
https://keckobservatory.org/dla
One of the biggest mysteries of the early universe is how galaxies formed and how the star formation rates in those galaxies are so high. One explanation is that there are clouds of cold and diffuse neutral hydrogen (H2) which is virtually invisible but provides the fuel for galaxy and star formation. The team that used Keck used a simple idea - let's use a background light source to illuminate the clouds. Of course, we can't just go there and place a light bulb behind the clouds, they are 11 billion light-years away, but you can find a quasar or an even more cool idea, a galaxy that has its light magnified by more hard to see things (see Einstein) and use that as the background light source.
Guess what? The H2 clouds showed up.
https://www.space.com/elusive-gas-clouds...y-universe
https://keckobservatory.org/dla