Monday, March 17, 2014

Report: Scientists Find Evidence Of Cosmic Inflation

According to cosmologists, the type of scientists who study the origin of the universe, one early stage of the Big Bang was a brief period of cosmic inflation, during which universe expanded faster than the speed of light.  While Einstein's theory of relativity posits that no material object can move through space at speeds greater than that of light, the inflation was the growth of space itself, and thus not subject to this speed limit.  As reported in Space(dot)com, direct evidence of cosmic inflation has not been found, until a recent set of observations taken from Antarctica detected polarizations called "B-modes" in the cosmic microwave background radiation.  The "B-modes" are said to be the result of gravitational waves that were in turn caused by inflation.  To learn more, read the full story and watch the video, both from Space(dot)com.


See also these articles at BBC News and Harvard-Smithsonian CFA.

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