As mysterious as the Big Bang that gave birth to the Universe is the brief but tumultuous period that immediately followed it. How did the cosmos transform from a uniform sea of darkness, into a chaotic swirl brimming with radiant stars? And what were these first stars like, and how were they born? So far, we have very strong suspicions, but no hard answers. One reason is that the light from this period, called the cosmic dawn, is extremely faint, making it nearly impossible to infer the traits of these first cosmic objects, let alone directly observe them. But that's […]