Cosmic Neon Sign: Gas Glows Brighter Than Stars ⚡ экспресс
Astronomers found a galaxy in the early Universe whose light doesn’t come from stars, but from a cloud of searing gas — like a neon sign. A dim, metal-free companion nearby could be the remains of the very first stars. That gas lantern might have made the cosmic dawn brighter than we ever imagined. What other secrets do ancient worlds hide?
A cosmic neon sign lit up in an incredibly distant galaxy: almost all its light comes from hot gas, and the stars are lost in this glow. The James Webb telescope recorded that the gas—a mix of hydrogen and helium—is so heated that it glows on its own.
The secret of such brightness is the first stars of the Universe. A faint satellite galaxy was noticed nearby with no traces of heavy elements: it is likely a clump of remnants of stars born right after the Big Bang. These giants, hundreds of times more massive than the Sun, faded long ago, but their energy, like an invisible current, heats the gas and makes it shine. Johann Balmer back in the 19th century described a special jump in hydrogen's glow—today it serves as a thermometer for distant galaxies.
Without Webb, such a discovery would have been impossible. It peers into the era when the first galaxies were forming, and helps understand how the expansion of the Universe changed the light, discovered by Edwin Hubble.
🎯 The Balmer jump works like a cosmic thermometer: by its magnitude astronomers determine gas temperature with an accuracy of a few thousand degrees.