  The tentative detection by the EDGES experiment of a global 21-cm absorption
trough centered at redshift 17 opens up the opportunity to study the birth of
the first luminous sources, the intensity of radiation backgrounds at cosmic
dawn, the thermal and ionization history of the young intergalactic medium.
Here, we focus on the astrophysical implications of the Lyman-alpha photon
field needed to couple the spin temperature to the kinetic temperature of the
gas at these early epochs. Under the basic assumption that the 21-cm signal is
activated by extremely metal-poor stellar systems, we show that the EDGES
results are consistent with an extrapolation of the declining galaxy UV
luminosity density measured at 4<z<9 by deep HST observations. A substantially
enhanced star formation rate density or new exotic sources of UV photons are
not required at the redshifts of the EDGES signal. The amount of ionizing
radiation produced by the same stellar systems that induce Lyman-alpha coupling
is significant, of order 0.5 Lyman-continuum photons per H-atom per 100 Myr. To
keep hydrogen largely neutral and delay the reionization process consistently
with recent Planck CMB results, mean escape fractions of f_esc < 20% are
required at z>15.
