Scientists stumped by detection of carbon in early universe

Scientists stumped by detection of carbon in early universe

The James Webb Space Telescope is transforming our understanding of the early universe. An international team of astronomers have discovered carbon in a galaxy that formed within 350 million years after the Big Bang. The discovery challenges the conventional understanding of nucleosynthesis, or the process by which elements are forged in the hearts of stars.

The James Webb Space Telescope is challenging the scientific understanding of the Early Universe. (Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Brant Robertson, UC Santa Cruz, Ben Johnson, CfA, Sandro Tacchella, Cambridge, Phill Cargile, CfA).

New Delhi: Astronomers have detected carbon in a galaxy that formed 350 million years after the Big Bang. This is the earliest detection of any element in the universe other than hydrogen. As far as astronomers are concerned, all elements heavier than hydrogen or helium are considered metals. According to the conventional understanding of nucleosynthesis, the first stars were made up of hydrogen and helium. The cores of these stars forged metals, which were then seeded to the surrounding environment on their death.

The earliest stars themselves are believed to have been formed between 100 and 200 million years after the Big Bang. Finding a carbon-laden galaxy in the early universe is challenging to reconcile with conventional science. The stars forged all the elements that make up the universe today, with new generations of stars formed from the stardust of previous generations, with the metallicity of the universe increasing across time.

The significance of carbon

Carbon is one of the ingredients essential to life as we know it. Previous research had indicated that carbon started forming in large quantities only about one billion years after the Big Bang. The carbon was discovered in a compact, low-mass galaxy, that is about 100,000 times less massive than the Milky Way. It is likely that the galaxy has grown large and complex now.

A paper describing the findings has been accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Coauthor of the paper, Roberto Maiolino says, “We were surprised to see carbon so early in the universe, since it was thought that the earliest stars produced much more oxygen than carbon. We had thought that carbon was enriched much later, through entirely different processes, but the fact that it appears so early tells us that the very first stars may have operated very differently.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is challenging so many assumptions about the early universe, that some scientists have even proposed that the universe is twice as old as the conventional estimate of 13.7 billion years.