AstroSat Detects UV Light From Galaxy AudFs01: A Step Towards Solving Mystery Of How Dark Age In The Universe Ended

• 29 Aug 2020

• A global team led by scientists of the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) has discovered one of the earliest galaxies in extreme ultraviolet light.
• AstroSat, India’s first multi-wavelength satellite that has five unique X-ray and ultraviolet telescopes working in tandem, has detected extreme UV light from a galaxy called AUDFs01, 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth.
• This is a very important clue to how the dark ages of the Universe ended and there was light in the Universe.
• AstroSat/Ultra Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) was able to achieve this unique feat because the background noise in the UVIT detector is much less than the ones on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST). 

Significance of this Discovery

• The research is significant in terms of enhancing our understanding of the universe’s early galaxies that are found only at extreme UV wavelengths.
• Studying the formation of the early stars and galaxies helps to understand the conditions which led to initial rays of light or radiation after a long period of Cosmic Dark Age in the early universe post the Bing Bang.