back to article Galactic BIRTH: ALMA peers 13 billion years into Dawn of Time Itself

Far back - quite literally into the earliest mists of time, when cold hydrogen fog cloaked the birth pangs of the early universe - the galaxies were born. Now, top boffins have pierced that fog and snapped a live action pic of one such galactic birth. Astronomers refer to this period, apparently, as the Epoch of Reionisation. …

  1. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
    Unhappy

    This is maddening

    Before I faint for thinking too much about it, one question: is there a limit on how far can we see?

    Newer and newer equipment allow us to see farther in space, and by extension, in time.

    ALMA is now peering at things that occurred a "mere" billion years after the Big Bang. Is it theoretically possible, with more sensitive equipment, to actually perceive the Big Bang somehow? if not, why not?

    And if it's possible (at least theoretically), would that mean that we could point out this equipment to any point in the sky and see it? is the "Big Bang" out there, all around us? or is it in a single direction?

    The mind boggles... I'm definitely not suited for astrophysics, simply thinking about these things make me feel insignificant and sick...

    1. King Jack

      Re: This is maddening

      The Big Bang happened everywhere.

      1. frank ly

        @King Jack Re: This is maddening

        Or, wherever the Big Bang happened, it became our everywhere?

    2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Well, theoretically . . .

      We won't be able to see beyond the first stars that started shining.

      And they took a bit of time to form.

    3. Grikath

      Re: This is maddening

      Well technically speaking we can "see" up to the moments right after the actual noise stopped, it's the cosmic background radiation. There's only so much you can learn from an echo though..

      As far as electromagnetic detection (including visible light) is concerned we're pretty close up to what we possibly can see, given that the period before the one "seen" now the universe itself was .. well... pitch black, given that it was still so dense that any radiation that occurred would have been intercepted by all the other stuff in the way.

      Even this observation is more like seeing a candle through London Fog.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is maddening

      The farthest you can see back in time using photons is about 400,000 years after the Big Bang, when the plasma cooled to the point when electrons combined with protons to form hydrogen gas and allowed light to pass through.

      Using neutrinos you could see back to around 2 seconds after the big bang, when the density of the universe dropped to below that of neutronium, but relic neutrinos are damn difflicult to detect.

    5. Frumious Bandersnatch

      Re: This is maddening

      Well you might not be able to see back beyond a certain point but people can hypothesise about the earlier stages and design high-energy experiments to test their theories. Apparently in the first few moments of the universe things existed as a "quark soup". Scientists are currently working to discover if it tastes anything like matar paneer. One recently commented, "I really hope it is--that would be super awesome."

    6. AceRimmer1980
      Pint

      Re: I'm definitely not suited for astrophysics

      This is not maddening. This is star pore.

    7. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: This is maddening

      @A. Coatsworth.

      I agree with you entirely! After all, these galaxies 13 Beeelion light years away in distance can't be 13 Beeelion years away in time because 13 Beeelion years ago the universe must have been a smaller place due to expansion so the light from their formation must have set off towards us later. Or sooner. Or something. I think my head is expanding towards a rapid and unexpected dis-assembly event. I wonder if astronomers of the future will be able to detect it?

      All fascinating stuff!

      1. ravenviz Silver badge
        Boffin

        Re: This is maddening

        The light left there 13 billion years ago!

  2. John Mangan

    There is a limit . .

    No matter what electro-magnetic radiation you choose to observe with you will reach a point where, due to the expansion of the universe, the horizon is receding at greater than the speed of light. This limit is the 'observable universe' and is independent of what radiation was or wasn't present at the time to be observed.

    Projections for the (far) future of the universe describe the universe darkening as more and more galaxies pass this horizon leaving us stranded here with whatever is left of the Milky Way and the local cluster. I don't know if the long term predictions also tear the local cluster apart or gravity wins (in the 'short' term anyway) before the Big Rip.

    1. Vic

      Re: There is a limit . .

      the horizon is receding at greater than the speed of light.

      Really?

      Vic.

      1. Sporkinum

        Re: There is a limit . .

        Really... Sort of..

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Picture or it didn't happen!

    1. Yugguy

      Take a selfie - you are made of material blasted from the heart of a supernova.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        That is the most astonishing thing . . .

        . . we are quite literally the universe become conscious of itself.

        To try to quote Darwin 'there is grandeur in this view of nature".

        1. ravenviz Silver badge
          Angel

          Re: That is the most astonishing thing . . .

          We all are part of the structure of the Universe!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Universe is only around 6000 years old

    Sick of these 'science' lies being repeated

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