Gravitational Waves from Big Bang

[DrLeftover]

Discovering the first direct evidence of the universe's incredible post-Big Bang expansion wasn't easy, requiring the development of new technologies and a long working stint at the bottom of the world.

Astronomers announced Monday (March 17) that they had detected the signature of primordial gravitational waves — the long-sought "smoking gun" for the theory of inflation — in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the ancient light left over from the Big Bang that created our universe 13.8 billion years ago.

To make the find, the researchers developed new superconducting detectors for the BICEP2 telescope at the South Pole. (BICEP stands for for Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization.)

http://www.space.com/25099-gravitational-waves-space-tech.html


More:

Scientists say they have extraordinary new evidence to support a Big Bang Theory for the origin of the Universe.

Researchers believe they have found the signal left in the sky by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came into being.

It takes the form of a distinctive twist in the oldest light detectable with telescopes.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26605974

 

[Evil Eye]

Always interesting to see a bit of observation supporting theory.