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reionization

reionization

1 9.9
A period in the early universe when neutral atoms lost electrons because of the first stars
  • noun
  • /ˌriːaɪənaɪˈzeɪʃən/
  • Specialized
: reionización
  • The 75-foot-tall South Pole Telescope at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station in Antarctica was specifically designed to detect signals of reionization in the Cosmic Microwave Background and allow astronomers to measure the extent of the partially ionized phase.
  • reionization epoch
  • cosmic reionization
  • reionization of the universe

Examples

  • The data provide new constraints on the universe's first era of galaxy formation, called the Epoch of Reionization.

    Blog text (20)
  • This is only the beginning of what astronomers expect to learn about reionization from the South Pole Telescope, said Reichardt.

    Blog text (20)
  • "We expect to measure the duration of reionization to less than 50 million years with the current survey," Reichardt said.

    Blog text (20)
  • Before this measurement, scientists believed that reionization lasted 750 million years or longer, and had no evidence as to when reionization began.

    Blog text (20)
  • "We find that the Epoch of Reionization lasted less than 500 million years and began when the universe was at least 250 million years old," Zahn said.

    Blog text (20)
  • The reionization history of the Universe, including the question of whether stars or quasars are sources of ionizing ultraviolet radiation, is an active area of current research in cosmology.

    Academic text (2005)
  • "Our data mostly tells you the duration of the Epoch of Reionization, while WMAP mostly tells you when, on average, it happened, so both together tell you the evolution of ionization over time," Zahn said.

    Blog text (20)
  • While this quasar adds to the mystery of these early massive black holes, it could help solve another enigma from the earliest times of the universe's estimated 13.7 billion years: a stage known as reionization.

    Blog text (13)
  • By the time the universe reached approximately one billion years of age, the reionization process was fully accomplished.

  • Astronomers study how the reionization of the universe affected the formation of galaxies in the early cosmos.

Surface Forms

reionization singular
reionizations plural

Morphology

reionization = ionization (semi-transparent) = re + ion + ize + ation

The word is transparently built from 'ionization' with the prefix 're-' meaning 'again'.

Etymology

Reionization starts with re- meaning 'again' and contains ion meaning 'charged particle', so it literally means 'making charged atoms again'. In the study of the universe, a helpful image is that reionization 'turned the lights back on' after the early dark ages because the first stars charged the gas again, which is why the word describes that major early change.