Astronomers detect signal from the dawn of the universe, using simple antenna in WA outback

A tiny signal, dating back to the birth of the first stars in our universe, has been detected by astronomers for the first time. Key points: Astronomers detected a miniscule radio signal that indirectly indicates the presence of the earliest stars The discovery was made using a small antenna in a pristine, radio quiet area in Western Australia While the frequency of the signal was predicted, scientists were surprised by the strength of the signal The discovery has thrown up new mysteries for physicists around the properties of dark matter They have picked up a radio signature produced just 180 million years after the Big Bang using a simple antenna in the West Australian outback. "The signal confirms our expectations for when stars show up in the universe," said the study's lead author Judd Bowman of Arizona State University. "Either there were other unknown objects that were making more radio waves than predicted, or there are interactions between dark matter and atoms or some other yet unknown type of physics that's making its mark in that era," he said, adding that the dark matter hypothesis is the mostly likely scenario. "This signal itself is telling us something very fundamental about our universe and the physical properties within that first 200 million years," she said.