{"id":219743,"date":"2025-08-09T08:04:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/the-first-molecules-in-the-universe-reveal-surprises-after-being-bombarded-with-deuterium"},"modified":"2025-08-09T08:04:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T13:04:42","slug":"the-first-molecules-in-the-universe-reveal-surprises-after-being-bombarded-with-deuterium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/the-first-molecules-in-the-universe-reveal-surprises-after-being-bombarded-with-deuterium","title":{"rendered":"The First Molecules In The Universe Reveal Surprises After Being Bombarded With Deuterium"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/the-first-molecules-in-the-universe-reveal-surprises-after-being-bombarded-with-deuterium.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In new experiments, the team attempted to recreate the conditions of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iflscience.com\/new-deepest-map-of-the-universe-reaches-back-135-billion-years-into-the-past-79594\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">early universe<\/a>, and test whether HeH<sup>+<\/sup> could provide the cooling needed to form the universe\u2019s first stars. The team bombarded the molecule with deuterium at varying temperatures, simulated by varying the relative speed of the beams of particles. To their surprise, and contrary to previous predictions, the reaction rate did not slow as temperatures significantly decreased.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPrevious theories predicted a significant decrease in the reaction probability at low temperatures, but we were unable to verify this in either the experiment or new theoretical calculations by our colleagues,\u201d Dr Holger Kreckel from the Max-Planck-Institut f\u00fcr Kernphysik (MPIK) explained in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpi-hd.mpg.de\/mpi\/en\/public-relations\/news\/news-item\/chemistry-at-the-beginning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">statement<\/a>. \u201cThe reactions of HeH\u207a with neutral hydrogen and deuterium therefore appear to have been far more important for chemistry in the early universe than previously assumed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These results could have profound implications for our understanding of the early universe, and may even force a bit of reevaluation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In new experiments, the team attempted to recreate the conditions of the early universe, and test whether HeH+ could provide the cooling needed to form the universe\u2019s first stars. The team bombarded the molecule with deuterium at varying temperatures, simulated by varying the relative speed of the beams of particles. To their surprise, and contrary [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":511,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-particle-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/511"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}