Project description
Study could reveal a glimpse of the universe’s cosmic dawn
The cosmic dark ages – when the universe was filled with neutral hydrogen that was opaque to ultraviolet light – are thought to have ended around a billion years after the Big Bang. This was the period when the first light sources produced enough energetic photons to ionise the neutral hydrogen and the first galaxies started to form. However, this is also one of the least understood epochs in the universe’s evolution. The EU-funded FIRSTLIGHT project aims to fill this knowledge gap using deep observations from the large and powerful James Webb Space Telescope, after its launch. Researchers will work to determine the timeline of reionisation, identify the role the first galaxies played in this process and determine stellar properties of the earliest galaxies.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedCoordinator
1000 Ljubljana
Slovenia
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