A flying observatory has pinpointed the first type of molecule that formed in the universe after the Big Bang.
Helium hydride — a combination of helium and hydrogen — was detected roughly 3,000 light-years from Earth by NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The molecule was found in a planetary nebula, NGC 7027, which is the dusty remnant of a sun-like star.
For hundreds of thousands of years after the Big Bang, the universe was too hot and too full of radiation for atoms to bond together. At that time, only a few types of atoms existed, including hydrogen, helium and lithium. However, the new study shows that 100,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe cooled enough for helium and hydrogen to combine, forming the molecule known as helium hydride.
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