NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite has given astronomers their best glimpse yet of the ghostly cobweb of helium gas left over from the Big Bang, which underlies the universe's structure. The helium isn't found in galaxies or stars, but is spread thinly through the vastness of space, where it traces the architecture of the universe back to very early times.
This structure arose from small gravitational instabilities seeded in the chaos just after the Big Bang. These FUSE observations help confirm theoretical models of how matter in the expanding universe condensed into a web-like structure pervading all of the space between galaxies.
Illustrations are available at these URLs:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/27
http://hubble.stsci.edu/go/news
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html
[Contact: Don Savage, William Steigerwald, Dr. George Sonneborn, Dr. Gerard Kriss]
10-Aug-2001
