Hubble observations challenge supernova winds' role in cosmic reionization

An international team of researchers, including members from the University of Michigan, has revealed surprising results that could rewrite our understanding of a key transition in the early universe. Credit: Siyi Wang An international team of researchers, including members from the University of Michigan, has revealed surprising results that could rewrite our understanding of a key transition in the early universe.

Within the first billion years after the Big Bang, the universe filled with a fog of neutral hydrogen that was impenetrable to ultraviolet light. Now, however, using the Hubble Space Telescope, a NASA mission launched with contributions from the European Space Agency, to observe nearby galaxies, the team has shown that those winds actually prevent radiation from leaving galaxies.

The Hubble Space Telescope also supported the work through a grant administered by the Space Telescope Science Institute. The team's findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, strengthen an alternate theory behind reionization.

Carr and his colleagues are working to secure more time to use Hubble to observe more galaxies to further test this idea. Our findings highlight the need to examine how radiation and winds from young stars shape the surrounding gas before the first supernovae explode.

It appears that energy input from supernovae has stirred up the surroundings and increased, rather than decreased, the coverage of neutral gas and dust that suppresses ionizing radiation escape," said Stephan McCandliss, senior author of the new study and director of the Center. The study included nearly 30 collaborators from more than a dozen institutions worldwide.

Cody Carr et al, Lyman continuum escape during the onset of galactic winds in compact starbursts, Nature Astronomy (2026).

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