Fluorine – an element found in our bones and teeth – is detected in a galaxy 12 BILLION light years away, marking the most distant detection yet
Astronomers detected fluorine in a dust cloud surrounding galaxy NGP–190387
The light from this galaxy originated when the universe was 1.4 billion years old
Finding an abundance of fluorine this early helped pin down how it formed
The team predict it originated in the cores of short-lived Wolf-Rayet type stars
Fluorine, an element found in our teeth and bones in the form of fluoride, has been detected in a galaxy 12 billion light years away from the Earth.
This is the most distant detection of the chemical so far, according to astronomers from the University of Hertfordshire, who used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to make the discovery.
At this great distance, we see the fluorine as it was only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang – about 10 per cent the current age of the universe.
‘Like most elements around us, fluorine is created in stars but, until now, we did not know exactly how this element was produced,’ said study author Maximilien Franco.
Franco and colleagues found hydrogen fluoride in the large clouds of gas of the distant galaxy NGP–190387, the light of which was produced 12 billion years ago, and is only just reaching us.
Stars expel heavier elements towards the end of their lives, and with this fluorine being found when the universe was just 1.4 billion years old, it suggest the stars that created it must have lived and died very quickly, the team said.
They believe that Wolf–Rayet stars, very massive stars that live only a few million years, are the most likely production sites of fluorine.
Until now, astronomers were unclear how fluorine came about, and which stars were responsible for its production, especially in the early universe.
‘We all know about fluorine because the toothpaste we use every day contains it in the form of fluoride,’ said Franco.
‘We did not even know which type of stars produced the majority of fluorine in the universe!’
The researchers used ALMA to study an ancient gas cloud for the telltale signs of the chemical as close to the Big Bang as they could get.
The light they observed came from when the universe was only 1.4 billion years old – about 10 per cent of its current age.
Chemicals are forged in the hearts of dying stars, which fuse heavier and heavier elements as they run out of hydrogen and helium before eventually shedding their matter, forming a cloud of gas.
The detection of fluorine 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang implies that the stars that created fluorine must have lived and died quickly.
Wolf-Rayet stars are one of the few that can explain these rapid expulsion, as they only live a few million years, a blink of the eye in the universe’s history.
The team said their models need this rapid life cycle to explain the amount of hydrogen fluoride they spotted.
Wolf–Rayet stars had been suggested as possible sources of cosmic fluorine before, but astronomers did not know until now how important they were in producing this element in the early universe.
Source: daily mail
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Fluorine – an element found in our bones and teeth – is detected in a galaxy 12 BILLION light years away, marking the most distant detection yet