Paper - Cosmic Dawn

Maria Daniella B.
Santos
Section C
What Is Really Out There and Other Things
In a more technologically advanced world, it is hard to believe that there once was a time
when smart phones, automobiles, television sets, and the like, did not exist yet. At this day and
age, most—if not all—things tangible came from a mere idea. However, people were told in
various ways about how everything in the universe came from nothing. According to the
Catholic bible, the world started off as nothing. Out of nowhere, God suddenly just appeared and
created everything in under six days. For other religions, they have their own similar creation
stories. Despite these stories from the respective religions, scholars from all over the world
started questioning if there was scientific proof of how the world came to be what it is right now.
In the documentary presented entitled Cosmic Dawn: The Real Moment of Creation, various
professors strive to prove how the Cosmic Dawn is actually the real moment of creation and to
see for themselves the first stars in the universe.
Throughout the entire video, there were a lot of mentions about concepts such as The Big
Bang Theory, the Dark Ages, and the Cosmic Dawn. What secondary level lessons from science
classes have taught the students is that before, the world was nothing but a big pot of different
gases. Over time, these gases formed into bigger balls of gas. Eventually, they head butted each
other and BOOM. These two massive balls of gases collided and exploded and their remnants
became the different specks that people are able to see with their naked eye, way up in the night
sky. According to these lessons, the universe was created through that big explosion. Hence, that
is the reason why it is called The Big Bang Theory.
What secondary level lessons do not explain—in order to prevent emotionally unstable
and incredibly fragile minds of students to combust—is that The Big Bang Theory was not the
moment of creation, as it is so advertised by primary and secondary educators alike. Although
that does not mean to say that The Big Bang Theory is completely irrelevant in the scientific-
based creation story. In fact, The Big Bang served as a catalyst. It is the prologue of the entire
creation story. It created space and time. Moreover, as the energy that was released from that
explosion cooled off, it left behind a black drab of hydrogen fog in its wake. At this point, this
phenomenon was called the Cosmic Dark Age.
In the slightly denser regions, the hydrogen atoms in the fog were attracted to each other
and held together by gravity under extreme pressure. When this happens, it triggers nuclear
fusion to occur, thus, forming a star. In other instances however, gravity may pull these atoms
together, yet another force pushes them apart. Moreover, since the gravity squeezes inwards, the
gas heats up more which equates to the force that pushes outwards. According to Professor
Volker Bromm, the only reason as to why other atoms overcome this and form stars is due to the
fact that heavier elements are present. The presence of these heavier elements allows gravity to
hold together these hydrogen atoms thus forming stars. The vital part in this process is how the
two hydrogen atoms meet to form a hydrogen molecule because two hydrogen atoms combined
are able to absorb heat greater than one hydrogen atom can. In other words, gas is cooler; gravity
takes over and makes extreme conditions in terms of density and temperature which triggers
nuclear fusion. At this point, the first star of the universe was created and identified by Bromm
through the use of supercomputers.
According to Bromm, everything in the universe is here because of the explosion of an

enormous star, the first star. This giant star is twenty (20) times hotter, a hundred (100) times
bigger, and ten (10) million times more luminous as compared to the sun. In addition, it appears
ultraviolet blue. However, because of its size, the gas inside the core rose in temperature and it
contained massive amounts of pressure which triggered the explosion. From thereon, that star
broke off into numerous hydrogen atoms. In his research, the hydrogen atoms were scattered
across the universe, though, some regions were slightly denser than the others. However these
hydrogen atoms did not remain as hydrogen atoms for long. Later on, a process called Cosmic
Recycling would be acknowledged. In this process, the death of the first star in the form of a
hypernova, was considered the biggest explosion in the universe (Abel, Tom).The particles that
were left over from this explosion thus repeat the cycle and create more stars exponentially.
In relation to this, Professor Steven Tingay also conducted experiments in which he used Radio
telescopes and MWA antennae to locate where the hydrogen fog was. In his research, he
discovered that each hydrogen atom had its own distinct radio frequency and gave off its own
radio wave. He used the MWA antennae to tune into specific radio frequencies where hydrogen
fog emits radio waves. This transmission similar to FM Radio tuning and was used because it
was the only way to contact with Cosmic Dawn since there was no existing technology to spot
the first stars then without the use of supercomputers.
Afterwards, Professor Stefan Keller introduced the succeeding generation of stars

through the use of his Robotic Skymapper telescope. Also, majority of his research relied heavily
on light as a basis. The Skymapper telescope captured light from nearly a million stars, analyzed
the color of each and every one, and organized to iron content. According to Keller, each
generation of stars has a richer composition of heavier object. In this case, the heavier object that
is referred to is iron. Since the relatively younger generation of stars possesses larger amounts of
iron, he stated that the older of generation of stars can be identified by the smaller iron content it
contains. Through this method, he was able to identify the second generation stars which were
formed from the exploding debris of one of the very first stars from the Cosmic Dawn.
Further into these discoveries, Professors Jim Dunlop and Ross McLure were able to
capture a faint blob using a Hubble Space Telescope, which is what we usually see in science
fiction movies or movies somehow related to the topic of outer space and the universe. They
used this device to tunnel deeper in the distant universe in search of light from the Cosmic Dawn.
Instead, the faint blob that they found turned out to be an entire galaxy which is twenty times
smaller than the Milky Way. They are known for discovering the earliest galaxy that dates back
to thirteen billion years ago.
As mentioned, the era of the Cosmic Dawn arrived after the Cosmic Dark Age in which
the universe was basically sheathed in a thick coating of fog which prevented what we see now
as the universe from ever being discovered. Yes, the stars were increasing exponentially in
number however, the universe remained opaque because the ultraviolet radiation that came from
the stars was not yet enough to penetrate the fog. Eventually, since the stars were literally so hot,
most of the light that it emits was ultraviolet. It was so strong that it blasted the electrons from
the hydrogen atoms found in the fog. In turn, the radiation hits the fog and the fog becomes
transparent at that point. By all the stars doing this, the hydrogen fog eventually deteriorates and
lifts up. From there, all galaxies are finally revealed. Thus, Cosmic Dawn has finally been
reached. In the era of Cosmic Dawn, new galaxies formed from darkness. It was deemed the
“Age of enlightenment” because it was a dynamic period in time. It is also highlighted because
of how it gave birth to the complexity of the universe which lead to our existence.
Throughout the course of the different discoveries made, the respective scientists used
tools such as the Hubble Space telescope, the Radio telescope, the Skymapper telescope, and
supercomputers. The reason in which why they used these technology rather than just using
“normal, consumer-grade tools” is because primarily, as a scientist, all data should be as accurate
and as precise as possible. In order to get the proper results, the professors needed to use state of
the art material that could not be found in relatively common and simple products sold in the
malls.
Given all these information, it makes one wonder how little people know about their
home: Planet Earth and everything that surrounds it. It opens the eyes of people to look past what
is known and strive to know more about the unknown. What we see of a distant object is how it
looked in the distant past. Over-all, this video enabled people to see how in looking at the past,
you move forward towards a better and brighter future.
WORKS CITED
“Cosmic Dawn: The Real Moment of Creation”. Horizon, BBC. 10 Sep 2015. Television. 16
Mar 2016.

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Maria Daniella B.

What Is Really Out There and Other Things

According to Bromm, everything in the universe is here because of the explosion of an

Afterwards, Professor Stefan Keller introduced the succeeding generation of stars

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