Prime Suspects<\/strong><\/p>\nIt could be that early galaxies may be largely to blame for the energetic light that broke up the neutral atoms. The first black holes may have played a role, too. Roman will look far and wide to examine both possible culprits.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoman will excel at finding the building blocks of cosmic structures like galaxy clusters that later form,\u201d said Takahiro Morishita, an assistant scientist at Caltech\/IPAC in Pasadena, California, who has studied cosmic dawn. \u201cIt will quickly identify the densest regions, where more \u2018fog\u2019 is being cleared, making Roman a key mission to probe early galaxy evolution and the cosmic dawn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The earliest stars were likely starkly different from modern ones. When gravity began pulling material together, the universe was very dense. Stars probably grew hundreds or thousands of times more massive than the Sun and emitted lots of high-energy radiation. Gravity huddled up the young stars to form galaxies, and their cumulative blasting may have once again stripped electrons from protons in bubbles of space around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could call it the party at the beginning of the universe,\u201d Thaller said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never seen the birth of the very first stars and galaxies, but it must have been spectacular!\u201d<\/p>\n
But these heavyweight stars were short-lived. Scientists think they quickly collapsed, leaving behind black holes \u2013\u2013 objects with such extreme gravity that not even light can escape their clutches. Since the young universe was also smaller because it hadn\u2019t been expanding very long, hordes of those black holes could have merged to form even bigger ones \u2013\u2013 up to millions or even billions of times the Sun\u2019s mass.<\/p>\n
Supermassive black holes may have helped clear the hydrogen fog that permeated the early universe. Hot material swirling around black holes at the bright centers of active galaxies, called quasars, prior to falling in can generate extreme temperatures and send off huge, bright jets of intense radiation. The jets can extend for hundreds of thousands of light-years, ripping the electrons from any atom in their path.<\/p>\n
NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope is also exploring cosmic dawn, using its narrower but deeper view to study the early universe. By coupling Webb\u2019s observations with Roman\u2019s, scientists will generate a much more complete picture of this era.<\/p>\n
So far, Webb is finding more quasars than anticipated given their expected rarity and Webb\u2019s small field of view. Roman\u2019s zoomed-out view will help astronomers understand what\u2019s going on by seeing how common quasars truly are, likely finding tens of thousands compared to the handful Webb may find.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a stronger statistical sample, astronomers will be able to test a wide range of theories inspired by Webb observations,\u201d Yung said.<\/p>\n
Peering back into the universe\u2019s first few hundred million years with Roman\u2019s wide-eyed view will also help scientists determine whether a certain type of galaxy (such as more massive ones) played a larger role in clearing the fog.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could be that young galaxies kicked off the process, and then quasars finished the job,\u201d Yung said. Seeing the size of the bubbles carved out of the fog will give scientists a major clue. \u201cGalaxies would create huge clusters of bubbles around them, while quasars would create large, spherical ones. We need a big field of view like Roman\u2019s to measure their extent, since in either case they\u2019re likely up to millions of light-years wide \u2013\u2013 often larger than Webb\u2019s field of view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roman will work hand-in-hand with Webb to offer clues about how galaxies formed from the primordial gas that once filled the universe, and how their central supermassive black holes influenced galaxy and star formation. The observations will help uncover the cosmic daybreakers that illuminated our universe and ultimately made life on Earth possible.<\/p>\n
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech\/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems, Inc in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.<\/p>\n
Download high-resolution video and images from NASA\u2019s Scientific Visualization Studio<\/p>\n
By Ashley Balzer<\/em><\/strong>
NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/strong>, Greenbelt, Md.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nMedia contact:<\/em><\/strong>
Claire Andreoli<\/em><\/strong>
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
<\/em><\/strong>NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/strong>, Greenbelt, Md.<\/em><\/strong>
301-286-1940<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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