Now, after decades of searching, astrophysicists have found verification of the first molecule that formed minutes after the Big Bang. The elusive molecule had been reproduced in a lab in 1925, but astronomers had a tough time finding it naturally occurring in space. Temperatures cooled and the first atoms formed: helium, hydrogen and lithium. When it reacted with a hydrogen atom, for example, it created H2, or molecular hydrogen — marking the beginning of the modern universe. "We often think of the first molecule as being molecular hydrogen, because we see a lot of that in the universe … but this is what kicked off the process."

Source: CBC News April 17, 2019 21:00 UTC