Editing Big Bang (section)

=== Primordial gas clouds ===
[[File:PIA17993-DetectorsForInfantUniverseStudies-20140317.jpg|thumb|right|[[Focal plane]] of [[BICEP and Keck Array|BICEP2 telescope]] under a microscope – used to search for polarization in the CMB<ref name="BICEP2-2014">{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=16 December 2014 |orig-date=Results originally released on 17 March 2014 |title=BICEP2 March 2014 Results and Data Products |url=http://bicepkeck.org/bicep2_2014_release.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140318190423/http://bicepkeck.org/ |archive-date=18 March 2014 |access-date=10 December 2019 |website=The BICEP and Keck Array CMB Experiments |publisher=[[Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences|FAS Research Computing]], [[Harvard University]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref><ref name="NASA-20140317">{{cite web |url=https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-082 |url-status=live |title=NASA Technology Views Birth of the Universe |last=Clavin |first=Whitney |date=17 March 2014 |website=[[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] |publisher=[[NASA]] |location=Washington, D.C. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191010183450/https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2014-082 |archive-date=10 October 2019 |access-date=10 December 2019}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20140317">{{cite news |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |author-link=Dennis Overbye |date=17 March 2014 |title=Space Ripples Reveal Big Bang's Smoking Gun |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/science/space/detection-of-waves-in-space-buttresses-landmark-theory-of-big-bang.html |url-status=live |url-access=registration |department=Space & Cosmos |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York |issn=0362-4331 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140317154023/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/science/space/detection-of-waves-in-space-buttresses-landmark-theory-of-big-bang.html |archive-date=17 March 2014 |access-date=11 December 2019}} "A version of this article appears in print on March 18, 2014, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Space Ripples Reveal Big Bang's Smoking Gun." The online version of this article was originally titled "Detection of Waves in Space Buttresses Landmark Theory of Big Bang".</ref><ref name="NYT-20140324">{{cite news |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |author-link=Dennis Overbye |date=24 March 2014 |title=Ripples From the Big Bang |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/science/space/ripples-from-the-big-bang.html |url-status=live |url-access=registration |department=Out There |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York |issn=0362-4331 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325015901/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/science/space/ripples-from-the-big-bang.html |archive-date=25 March 2014 |access-date=24 March 2014}} "A version of this article appears in print on March 25, 2014, Section D, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Ripples From the Big Bang."</ref>]]
In 2011, astronomers found what they believe to be pristine clouds of primordial gas by analyzing absorption lines in the spectra of distant quasars. Before this discovery, all other astronomical objects have been observed to contain heavy elements that are formed in stars. Despite being sensitive to carbon, oxygen, and silicon, these three elements were not detected in these two clouds.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fumagalli |first1=Michele |last2=O'Meara |first2=John M. |last3=Prochaska |first3=J. Xavier |date=2 December 2011 |title=Detection of Pristine Gas Two Billion Years After the Big Bang |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=334 |issue=6060 |pages=1245–1249 |arxiv=1111.2334 |bibcode=2011Sci...334.1245F |doi=10.1126/science.1213581 |pmid=22075722 |s2cid=2434386}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.ucsc.edu/2011/11/pristine-gas.html |title=Astronomers find clouds of primordial gas from the early universe |last=Stephens |first=Tim |date=10 November 2011 |newspaper=Uc Santa Cruz News |publisher=[[University of California, Santa Cruz]] |location=Santa Cruz, CA |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111114140012/https://news.ucsc.edu/2011/11/pristine-gas.html |archive-date=14 November 2011 |access-date=11 December 2019}}</ref> Since the clouds of gas have no detectable levels of heavy elements, they likely formed in the first few minutes after the Big Bang, during BBN.