Scientists find cosmic ripples from birth of universe

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Scientists find cosmic ripples from birth of universe

Published March 17, 2014


Astronomers have discovered what they believe is the first direct evidence of the astonishing expansion of the universe in the instant following the Big Bang -- the scientific explanation for the birth of the universe some 13.8 billion years ago.

Scientists believe that the universe exploded from a tiny speck and hurled itself out in all directions in the fraction of a second that followed, beginning just 10 to the minus 35 seconds (roughly one trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second) after the universe's birth. Matter ultimately coalesced hundreds of millions of years later into planets, stars, and ultimately us.

And like ripples from a ball kicked into a pond, that Big Bang-fueled expansion caused ripples in the ancient light from that event, light which remains imprinted in the skies in a leftover glow called the cosmic microwave background.

Scientists still don’t know who kicked the ball.

But if confirmed, the newfound ripples would be amazing proof of what has long been mere theory about what happened in those first millionths of a second.

“The implications for this detection stagger the mind,” said Jamie Bock, professor of physics at Caltech, laboratory senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and project co-leader. “We are measuring a signal that comes from the dawn of time.”

"It would be the most important discovery since the discovery, I think, that the expansion of the universe is accelerating," Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who is not a member of the study team, told Space.com. He compared the finding to a 1998 observation that opened the window on mysterious dark energy and won three researchers the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics.

The groundbreaking results came from observations by BICEP2, a telescope at the South Pole, of the cosmic microwave background -- a faint glow left over from the Big Bang.

Beginning a fraction of a fraction of a second after the universe's birth, according to the current theory, space-time expanded incredibly rapidly, ballooning outward faster than the speed of light. The afterglow from that expansion is called the cosmic microwave background, and tiny fluctuations in it provide clues to conditions in the early universe.

For example, small differences in temperature across the sky show where parts of the universe were denser, eventually condensing into galaxies and galactic clusters.

Since the cosmic microwave background is a form of light, it exhibits all the properties of light, including polarization. On Earth, sunlight is scattered by the atmosphere and becomes polarized, which is why polarized sunglasses help reduce glare. In space, the cosmic microwave background was scattered by atoms and electrons and became polarized too.

“Our team hunted for a special type of polarization called ‘B-modes,’ which represents a twisting or ‘curl’ pattern in the polarized orientations of the ancient light,” said Bock.

The team presented their work at a press conference Monda at Harvard -- the discovery of that characteristic pattern of polarization in the skies, which they called proof of the gravitational waves across the primordial sky.

“This work offers new insights into some of our most basic questions: Why do we exist? How did the universe begin? These results are not only a smoking gun for inflation, they also tell us when inflation took place and how powerful the process was,” Harvard theorist Avi Loeb said.

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Originally Posted by hometeam

Right.

That is my main argument to people who just.cant.get.it. People can accept EVERYTHING that comes from science, computers, satellites, medicine, OUR ENTIRE WORLD, and we KNOW it works. You know, because THAT IS HOW WE WHERE ABLE TO CREATE THESE THINGS! And then people dedicate their entire lives to knowing about how things TRULY work, collaborating all around the world, in the past and going into the future. And when they talk about anything that is at odds with stone aged myths, all the sudden, the 'science isnt in' or any other number of excuses, we have heard them all. Are you kidding me?

The other day, in a single conversation. I had an otherwise intelligent person tell me;

1. 'they found noahs ark, they found it!'
2. Carbon dating has been disproven
3. Humans have only been around for 2000 years
4. The bible was written in the 1800s, after science had taken hold, so science has proven the bible true.

This is why people who understand science, and how it really works, get so exasperated all the time.

Come on.

1. Unknown. Ridges of a Ark shaped boat was spotted in Turkish mountains. Unproven
2. Haven't heard that claim. So far, it seems fairly accurate.
3. That's dumb
4. Never heard that one. Person should be committed.

Closed minded people are frustrating for people who have actually experienced supernatural events whether demonic in my case or angelic in other's cases. I could care less personally if Dave Lane (who can't even read and comprehend a post) ,has a good spiritual experience upon death. I'm not here to convert anyone. I just pointed out that parts of science like parts of the Bible have been corrupted by man.
Religions have been used and corrupted by political forces for sure.
If you don't think that some scientific theories have been bent or influenced by political or atheist agendas, you are naive. Sadly NASA is being totally Co-opted for political purposes right now.
Personally, I am fascinated by the Cosmos and I'm amazed when people aren't. I've seen science change its collective minds so many times and realize that they build theory upon theory and if a previous theory was just slightly off, it changes everything. Science is about repeatability. Where it fails is explaining the non repeatable or the non constant like the speed of light in a vacuum.http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...ly-study-finds You know nothing about science if you don't know this.
Zamma Wamma