Fredagskollokvium: Mysterious structures in our Galaxy obscuring the view towards the first stars in the Universe

With the novel world-leading radio telescope LOFAR (the Low Frequency Array), astronomers 
are expected to detect the cosmological radiation emitted billions of years ago,  from the time of the 
first ‘stars’. However, detection of this weak emission is difficult.  Synchrotron emission from our own 
Galaxy intervenes, like mist on an autumn morning. To clear the view towards the early childhood 
of the Universe, we need to study the emission from our Galaxy in great detail. During my talk I will 
give an overview of the LOFAR-EoR key science project, its challenges and present its most recent
results. A special focus will be given to the rich morphological features discovered with the LOFAR 
in several fields at high Galactic latitudes, associated with small column densities of the interstellar 
medium located somewhere within the Local Bubble. At the end I will discuss their puzzling correlation 
with the Planck dust polarisation data and HI data.