Space Archeology : Studying Early Universe Using Remote Radio Telescopes

In the evolution of the Universe, there remains a gap in understanding the formation of first stars and galaxies, ~300,000 years after the Big Bang. These early stars brought with them the first light in the Universe, thus leading to ‘Cosmic Dawn’. Although this is an event of the past, the spin-flip transition of an electron in the neutral hydrogen (called the 21 cm signal) remains a tracer of the early Universe. This talk is about how we use this tracer in radio astronomy to bridge the gap between formation and the present day Universe.

Speaker: Akshatha Vydula, Arizona State University