For millions of years after the birth of the universe, there were no stars. No galaxies. Just pure, pitch-black darkness. In the previous episode, we talked about how light finally began to travel freely through space after photons were released. But that light wasn’t from an active source—it was the cosmic microwave background radiation, the fading echo of the universe itself. Now it’s time to witness the rise of the first true sources of light: the very first stars. In today’s episode, we’ll explore our emergence from what’s known as the Cosmic Dark Age, how the first stars formed, and how they forever transformed the universe. The Cosmic Dark Age: The Absence of Light Although the universe became “transparent” after the Recombination Era—when photons could finally move freely—there were still no stars or galaxies to actively emit light. This dark period began around 380,000 years after the Big Bang and lasted until the birth of the first stars. It stretched across a few ...
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