(ORDO NEWS) — The signal, which was previously interpreted as the first light in the universe, may have a different origin.
In 2018, scientists detected a signal in space that they took to be the light of the first stars in the universe, which arose 180 million years after the Big Bang.
Due to the redshift, it reached people at radio frequency, and significantly changed the ideas of astronomers about the history of the universe: for example, it was previously believed that the first stars formed only 200 million years after the Big Bang.
In addition, when analyzing the radiation, it turned out that the cosmic gas of that era was very cold. Scientists explained this by cooling on dark matter, which for this had to have different properties than in modern calculations.
Now Saurab Singh of the Raman Research Institute (India) and his colleagues have published an article claiming that the signal was not of cosmic origin.
They analyzed the amplitude of the radio signal and compared it with other cosmic radiation from the same area of the sky.
“Correlation analysis shows that the distortion that is present in this signal is not typical for the part of the sky to which the antenna was directed,” the authors write.
“This means that the distortion detected by the antenna is the result of a systematic error in the operation of the instrument.”
The researchers hope that sooner or later astronomers will be able to catch the real light of the first stars.
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