What specific historical period is charted by analyzing how the neutral hydrogen fog became transparent to light?
Answer
The reionization epoch
The reionization epoch marks a critical phase in cosmic history when the universe transitioned from being pervaded by a dense, neutral hydrogen fog—which made the cosmos opaque to high-energy light—to being transparent. This transparency was achieved when the first stars and galaxies began emitting enough energetic radiation to heat the surrounding gas and strip electrons away from the neutral hydrogen atoms, ionizing them. This process allowed photons to travel freely across greater distances. Instruments like the Roman Space Telescope are designed to map the extent of this process across large volumes of space, helping confirm when and how quickly this fundamental transition occurred.
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