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History of the Universe
This diagram traces the evolution of the universe from the big bang to the present. Two watershed epochs are shown. Not long after the big bang, light from the first stars burned off a fog of cold hydrogen in a process called reionization. At a later epoch quasars, the black-hole-powered cores of active galaxies, pumped out enough ultraviolet light to reionize the primordial helium.
- Release DateOctober 7, 2010
- Science ReleaseHubble Astronomers Uncover an Overheated Early Universe
- Credit
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Helium Reionization in the Early Universe
This ultraviolet-light data from the Hubble Space Telescope's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph shows strong helium II absorption and transmission lines from a quasar, identifying an era 11.7 to 11.3 billion years ago when electrons were stripped from primeval helium atoms – a process...
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Last Updated
Feb 17, 2025
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov