Starts With A Bang #41 - Before The First Stars
Starts With A Bang podcast
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The Unlikely Transition in Hydrogen
In hydrogen, the electron and proton go from their spins being aligned to an anti-aligned state. When this happens, a little photon comes out and that photon happens with a wavelength of 21 centimeters. It doesn't happen very often, and that's why we don't really see it in space around us. But when you're looking at large quantities of neutral hydrogen, then yes, you will see this signal.
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