When the universe expanded tremendously after the Big Bang, the resulting gravity waves interacted with the cosmic microwave background to produce this characteristic "B-mode" pattern. Credit: BICEP2 Collaboration Big news in the cosmos today! Researchers from the BICEP2 south pole telescope have found ancient proof that the universe expanded tremendously after the Big Bang, a theory known as inflation. The discovery tells us (albeit indirectly) about an even earlier stage of the universe than we've ever before observed, and it provides crucial evidence that inflation did indeed occur. In so doing, it extends our model of the early universe from about one second after the Big Bang right back to less than 10^-37 seconds after the event — a stunning leap forward (or backward, as the case may be).
To understand this, let’s back up 13.8 billion years or so, to the Big Bang. Also known as the birth of ...
