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  • NEWS FEATURE

The quest to unlock the secrets of the baby Universe

Radioastronomers look to hydrogen for insights into the Universe’s first billion years.
  1. Davide Castelvecchi
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The Southern night sky seen over the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope antennas

A night view of part of the Murchison Widefield Array in Western Australia. Credit: Dr John Goldsmith/Celestial Visions

To get an idea of what the Universe looks like from Earth’s perspective, picture a big watermelon. Our Galaxy, the Milky Way, is one of the seeds, at the centre of the fruit. The space around it, the pink flesh, is sprinkled with countless other seeds. Those are also galaxies that we — living inside that central seed — can observe through our telescopes.

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Nature 572, 298-301 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02417-7

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