When astronomers tried to confirm a signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang, they saw nothing.
In 2018, astronomers operating an antenna called EDGES in the Australian outback reported that radio waves of a particular frequency were significantly dimmer than other waves coming from the night sky. The finding, published in Nature, was heralded as a groundbreaking signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang — an event dubbed “cosmic dawn,” which should have stamped such a signature in the light.