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CERN Colloquium
Exploring Cosmic renaissance: Observations of the first stars and galaxies
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Europe/Zurich
500/1-001 - Main Auditorium (CERN)
Description
Finding the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, the so-called primeval or Population III galaxies, remains one of the holy grails of astrophysics. Over the last decade enormous progress has been achieved in the exploration of the distant Universe, allowing us now to trace observationally the history of star formation over nearly 13 billion years, or back to redshift z~6.
However, beyond this lies a virtually unexplored period, the reionisation epoch. First observations in this important cosmic phase, also called the 'cosmic renaissance' as it represents the phase of the Universe where the first stars formed and brought light into the dark and opaque Universe after the Big Bang, have now just been achieved. Indeed using a near infra-red instrument at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in combination with the natural effect of gravitational lensing our team has recently been able to detect for the first time a galaxy at redshift 10, a distance where the Universe was barely 470 million years old. This detection opens the way for direct explorations of the first stars and galaxies with ground-based an future space observations.
An overview of the theoretical and empirical findings in this field will be presented. The expected properties of the first stars and galaxies will be summarised and search techniques for such objects will be discussed. Then I will present results from our work on redshift z~7-10 galaxies and discuss their first implications on cosmic reionisation. Finally, I'll briefly discuss the potential of future observations with ground-based telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Organiser(s): Daniel Treille / PH-EP Department
Note: * Tea & coffee will be served at 16.00 hrs.
However, beyond this lies a virtually unexplored period, the reionisation epoch. First observations in this important cosmic phase, also called the 'cosmic renaissance' as it represents the phase of the Universe where the first stars formed and brought light into the dark and opaque Universe after the Big Bang, have now just been achieved. Indeed using a near infra-red instrument at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in combination with the natural effect of gravitational lensing our team has recently been able to detect for the first time a galaxy at redshift 10, a distance where the Universe was barely 470 million years old. This detection opens the way for direct explorations of the first stars and galaxies with ground-based an future space observations.
An overview of the theoretical and empirical findings in this field will be presented. The expected properties of the first stars and galaxies will be summarised and search techniques for such objects will be discussed. Then I will present results from our work on redshift z~7-10 galaxies and discuss their first implications on cosmic reionisation. Finally, I'll briefly discuss the potential of future observations with ground-based telescopes and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Organiser(s): Daniel Treille / PH-EP Department
Note: * Tea & coffee will be served at 16.00 hrs.
