Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery by detecting a 13 billion-year-old signal with the help of Earth-based telescopes. This remarkable achievement has provided insights into the impact of the first stars on light emitted from the Big Bang. Astrophysicists utilized polarized microwave light to gain a better understanding of the Cosmic Dawn, a period that occurred approximately 50 million to one billion years after the Big Bang, marking the formation of the first stars, black holes, and galaxies.

The study, spearheaded by Tobias Marriage, a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), represents the first instance of ground-based observations capturing signals from the Cosmic Dawn. Marriage emphasized the significance of this feat, stating that many believed such observations were impossible from the Earth due to the challenges associated with measuring microwave signals from this ancient era. Conducted using telescopes located in the Andes mountains of northern Chile, the research has shed light on a pivotal moment in the history of the universe.