Pristine relics of the Big Bang spotted

[laconicsax]

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/47769

For the first time, astronomers have discovered two distant clouds of gas that seem to be pure relics from the Big Bang. Neither cloud contains any detectable elements forged by stars; instead, each consists only of the light elements that arose in the Big Bang some 14 billion years ago. Furthermore, the relatively high abundance of deuterium seen in one of the clouds agrees with predictions of Big Bang theory.

Just after the Big Bang, nuclear reactions created the three lightest elements – hydrogen, helium, and a tiny bit of lithium. Stars then converted some of this material into the heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen that pepper the cosmos today.

But no-one has ever seen a star or gas cloud made solely of these three Big Bang elements. Instead, all known stars and gas clouds harbour at least some "metals", the term astronomers use to describe any element, even carbon and oxygen, that is heavier than helium.

...

One gas cloud resides in the constellation Leo, the other in Ursa Major. The Leo cloud has a redshift – a measure of its distance – of 3.10, which means it is 11.6 billion light-years from Earth. The Ursa Major cloud is slightly farther away, with a redshift of 3.41 and at a distance of 11.9 billion light-years. We therefore see both clouds as they were about two billion years after the Big Bang.

[opihimoimoi]

1. CLOUDS??? Lousy Clouds??? Lets LOOK for those MISSING JOBS

we need so desperately

[eShirl]

3. wtf?

[dmallind]

4. I'm sure there are plenty of jobs in Ursa Major. Mission accomplished!

[Faux pas]

2. Stunning.

[NMMNG]

5. Amazing

[jpak]

6. Theory predicts - observation confirms

Theory now more robust

yup