Understanding the nature of the first cosmic sources is one of the key questions of Cosmology and Galaxy Formation. During the last years Cosmic Archaeology has opened the possibility to indirectly study these distant sources by catching their living fossils in the Local Universe. Continua a leggere First stars, galaxies, and black holes: now and then
Archivi tag: first stars
The physics of first star and galaxy formation
The formation of the first stars, black holes and galaxies is at the frontier of modern astrophysical research. Precision cosmology has revealed that we live in a flat Universe dominated by Dark Energy and Cold Dark Matter. Within this standard paradigm, structure formation proceeds hierarchically forming low mass objects first and subsequently building up larger galaxies all the way up to clusters of galaxies. While the growth of dark matter haloes is driven by gravity and well understood, the baryonic physics governing the formation and growth of stars, black holes and galaxies is more complex and requires the combination of different areas of physics covering such small scales as nuclei all the way up to parsec scale hydrodynamic instabilities. Continua a leggere The physics of first star and galaxy formation
How initial stars and galaxies formed
