Signal from the earliest known stars detected...

[joeactor]

... with an antenna about the size of a table!

"This is the first real signal that stars are starting to form, and starting to affect the medium around them," Alan Rogers, a scientist at MIT's Haystack Observatory, said in a statement. "What's happening in this period is that some of the radiation from the very first stars is starting to allow hydrogen to be seen. It's causing hydrogen to start absorbing the background radiation, so you start seeing it in silhouette, at particular radio frequencies."

Full article:
https://www.cnet.com/news/astronomers-see-dark-matter-stars-signal-hydrogen-big-bang/

[Recusant]

The potential that more will be learned about dark matter from this sort of observation is certainly intriguing. Thanks for posting that, joeactor. 

[Tank]

Interesting.

[Dave]

Yes, very interesting.

And though I "knew" it that idea of hydrogen being "seen in silhouette" against specific background electromagnetic radiation once again starts the wonder of "vision" in my mind - that we can see similar radiation ourselves.

[joeactor]

I've been listening to the audio book version of "Astrophysics for People in a Hurry" by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

He briefly touched on both dark matter and dark energy.

Sounds like that's the new frontier.

There was mention of dark energy perhaps being a force exerted on our universe from outside. I find that particularly intriguing... but can't see how that would be verified.

[Recusant]

Aaron Parsons, an astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, thinks it's possible that the observations are due to "noise" created by the instrument used to make the observations. The thread linked below includes links to interviews he's done on this topic.

Twitter thread on Thread reader

My concern is that the spectral feature in question may be systematic imprinted by their instrument.

[joeactor]

Aaron Parsons, an astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, thinks it's possible that the observations are due to "noise" created by the instrument used to make the observations. The thread linked below includes links to interviews he's done on this topic.

Twitter thread on Thread reader

My concern is that the spectral feature in question may be systematic imprinted by their instrument.

... time to duplicate the results, I guess.

[Dave]

Aaron Parsons, an astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley, thinks it's possible that the observations are due to "noise" created by the instrument used to make the observations. The thread linked below includes links to interviews he's done on this topic.

Twitter thread on Thread reader

My concern is that the spectral feature in question may be systematic imprinted by their instrument.

I remember the story of when they had to prove that the background radiation noise caused by interstellar hydrogen was not due to pigeon shit.

http://www.lindau-nobel.org/pigeon-waste-cosmic-melodies-and-noise-in-scientific-communication/

Correction, I remembered it as noise from "interstellar hudrogen", present day stuff (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_line). It seems it was actually the remainder of the radiation from the Big Bang.

[No one]

I'll only buy this if Kent Hovind and Ray Comfort get on board!

[hermes2015]

I'll only buy this if Kent Hovind and Ray Comfort get on board!