Most Distant Galaxy Gives Clues to Early Universe 104
NinjaT writes "From CNN, 'Scientists said on Wednesday that they have found the most distant galaxy yet, nearly 13 billion light-years away, in a discovery that could help explain how stars were formed at the dawn of time.
The galaxy, named IOK-1, is so far away that the light waves that reached Earth depict it as the system of stars existed shortly after the Big Bang created the universe 13.66 billion years ago.
That period, known to astronomers as the Dark Ages, saw the formation of the first stars and galaxies from elementary particles. Scientists had been unable to directly observe that time period until now.'"
What I find difficult to understand (Score:2, Interesting)
I was thinking about matter and how it was created and what we have here on earth.
The sun is made up of mostly hydrogen, through nuclear fusion, these hydrogen atoms smash into each other and bind into helium. The helium, being heavier than the hydrogen sinks to the center of the sun (or somewhere in there). As the sun uses up its hydrogen fuel, it slowly changes itself into a helium-based star.
Since we are made of stardust, where do the elements above helium come from? Did an iron star go super-nova and scatter peta-tons of iron atoms that then settled into spheres and became our earth? Carbon stars? Every element has to come from somewhere, and theoretically it needs to come from stars or stardust in order to exist at these low energies.
Where are these higher-element stars?