Galaxy observations reportedly narrow primordial helium estimate to 0.5% uncertainty

Researchers inferred how much helium formed in the universe’s first five minutes by studying 15 galaxies that have changed relatively little chemically, according to a University of Minnesota account published by ScienceDaily. The account puts the estimate’s uncertainty at 0.5%, three times more precise than earlier estimates. It offers a sharper test of early-universe physics, not a direct observation of the Big Bang.