The population ’s temperature just 880 million twelvemonth after the Big Bang has been taken by stargazer . This was possible thanks to a distance water swarm that , about 12.9 billion years ago , absorbed some light from the Cosmic Microwave Background ( CMB ) – the first light able to freely move in the Universe .
The average temperature of the observable cosmos derived from the CMB is presently about2.73 Kelvin(-270.42 ° C /-454.756 ° F ) , just a few arcdegree above absolute zero . The universe of discourse started in a hot heavy state and it has been cooling ever since .
As account in the journalNature , the temperature 880 million years ago is now estimated to be between 16.4 and 30.2 Kelvin .
This is consistent with a temperature of 20 Kelvin predicted for the universe of discourse at the time by the Standard Model of cosmology , our extend theory of how the universe at large scales forge . It requires the existence of two mysterious components : dark matter and dark energy , which have measurable effects we can see but that astronomers currently have n’t been able to prove exist .
substitute theories and limiting can sometimes predict different temperatures for unlike time . Some of them have unlike type of dark energy – in others , sullen vitality does n’t exist . This is the furthest back in time that the temperature has been measure out , and appropriate researchers to absent some of the possible alternative explanations .
" If there were to be any deviation from the expected trend , this could have unmediated implications for the nature of the elusive dark energy . " Dominik Riechers , the lead author of the University of Cologne , suppose in astatement .
The swarm in question is located in the starburst galaxy HFLS3 and the observation were possible thanks to the IRAM NOEMA scope regalia in the French Alps . This is a radiocommunication observatory that can study the universe at millimeter wavelength , ideal to make up one’s mind such signal .
The photons ( particles of light ) of the CMB at that time were still energetic enough to interact with pee molecule creating such a signaling . As the universe blow up , the CMB photons have lost vigor so they ca n’t create such interactions anymore .
The squad hopes that this first distant measure is run short to be the first of many .
" This new proficiency provides important new insights into the organic evolution of the universe , and shows us that the universe in its infancy had some unusual properties quite unlike today , ” cobalt - author Fabian Walter , from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy , submit .
