Explanation:
How did the first stars form?
To help find out, the SPHINX computer simulation of
star formation
in the very early universe was created, some results of which are shown in the
featured video.
Time since the
Big Bang is shown in millions of years on the upper left.
Even 100 million years after the
Big Bang, matter was spread
too uniformly across the cosmos for stars to be born.
Besides background radiation, the universe was dark.
Soon, slight matter clumps rich in
hydrogen gas begin to coalesce into
the
first stars.
In the
time-lapse video,
purple denotes gas, white denotes light, and gold shows radiation
so energetic that it
ionizes hydrogen,
breaking it up into charged electrons and protons.
The gold-colored regions also track the most massive stars that die with
powerful supernovas.
The inset circle highlights a central region that is
becoming a galaxy.
The simulation continues until the universe was about 550 million years old.
To assess the accuracy of the
SPHINX simulations
and the assumptions that went into them, the results are not only being
compared to current deep observations,
but will also be compared with
more direct observations of the early universe
planned with NASA's pending
James Web Space Telescope.