Planck telescope puts new datestamp on first stars

Source: BBC

5 February 2015 Last updated at 15:15 GMT

Planck telescope puts new datestamp on first stars

By Jonathan Amos
Science Correspondent

Scientists on Europe's Planck satellite say the first stars lit up the Universe later than was previously thought.

The team has made the most precise map of the "oldest light" in the cosmos.

Earlier observations of this radiation had suggested the first generation of stars were bursting into life by about 420 million years after the Big Bang.

Planck's new data now indicates this great ignition was well established by some 560 million years after it all got going.

"This difference of 140 million years might not seem that significant in the context of the 13.8-billion-year history of the cosmos, but proportionately it's actually a very big change in our understanding of how certain key events progressed at the earliest epochs," said Prof George Efstathiou, one of the leaders of the Planck Science Collaboration.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31145520