First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time

’Illuminating and entertaining’
The Washington Post

Astronomers have successfully observed a great deal of the Universe’s history, from recording the afterglow of the Big Bang to visualising the shadow of a black hole. However when it comes to understanding how the Universe began and grew, we have literally been in the dark.

This book tells the story of the Cosmic Dawn - the time when the very first stars burst into life. These celestial giants were hundreds of times more massive than the Sun and a million times more luminous: lonely blue stars that lived fast and died young in enormous explosions, seeding the Universe with the elements that would eventually make up life itself.

First Light illuminates this previously unknown, billion-year timeline. Astrophysicist Emma Chapman tells how these stars formed, why they were so unusual and what they can teach us about the universe today. She also also gives a first-hand look at the immense telescopes that are taking us from the realm of theoretical physics towards the wonder of looking back in time using observational astronomy. This revised edition has been updated to contain the latest findings across astronomy, from radio interferometry to gravitational waves and contains a brand new chapter covering the triumphant discovery of the first galaxies by the James Webb Space Telescope.

Emma Chapman is a Royal Society research fellow based at the University of Nottingham. She has been the recipient of multiple commendations and prizes, including the 2018 Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship and STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, as well as the Institute of Physics Jocelyn Bell Burnell Prize and the Royal Society Athena Medal. Emma is a respected commentator on astrophysical matters and regularly contributes to the Guardian and BBC radio, and speaks at public events.