Jun 12 1995
From The Space Library
Astronomers using NASA's Astro-2 observatory announced the definitive detection of one of the two original building blocks of the universe-the element helium created in the Big Bang explosion. The evidence was found using the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), one of three ultra-violet instruments on the Astro-2 observatory which was operated in the pay-load bay of the Space Shuttle Endeavour during its 17-day mission in March. Johns Hopkins University astronomers were able to detect the helium in the light from a distant quasar called HS1700+64, about 10 billion light years away. Essentially, the astronomers were looking at the universe when it was a quarter of its present age.
The HUT data also appear to give a partial answer to the puzzle of dark matter. Calculations based on HUT's data show that the primordial hydrogen and helium are about equal to the total amount of baryonic dark matter scientists believe exists. (NASA Release 95-87; W Post, Apr 19/95; AP, Jun 12/95; Time, Mar 6/95; AV Wk, Feb 27/95; Science, Jan 13/95)
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