Light From Cosmic Dawn

U.S. National Science Foundation-supported observatories allow researchers to advance and expand humanity’s understanding of the early universe. Tobias Marriage, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Yunyang Li, a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Chicago, discuss how they used the NSF Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor to see the cosmic microwave background, light from the beginning of the universe.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
This is the Discovery Files podcastfrom the U.S.
National Science Foundation.
America's long standinginnovation in astronomy has played
a vital role in uncovering the mysteriesof our universe.
NSF supported observatories have shatteredthe boundaries of scientific knowledge
while advancing and expandinghumanity's understanding
of the originand evolution of the early universe.

(00:25):
We're joined by Tobias Marriage,a professor in the Department of Physics
and Astronomy at Johns HopkinsUniversity, and Yunyang Li,
a postdoctoral researcherat the Kavli Institute
for Cosmological Physicsat The University of Chicago.
They're both part of a team researchingthe early universe using the cosmology
large angular scale surveyoror class, an array of telescopes
situated at high altitudein the Atacama Desert of Chile.

(00:48):
Thank you both for joining me today.Thanks for having me.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Professor. Marriage,I'd like to start with you.
What are these exciting new resultsyou're going to be sharing
with us today that were recently publishedin The Astrophysical Journal?
Well, fundamentally,the result is a map of the night sky.
But instead of
the stars, which we see with our eyes,we mapped invisible microwave light.

(01:09):
This lies on the electromagnetic spectrumbetween radio waves and the infrared.
And by analyzing this map of the skyin the microwaves, we can estimate
when the first stars formed, the so-called cosmic dawn.