A team of American astrophysicists has announced a major breakthrough in the study of the Universe’s origins: the detection of a signal believed to have been made in the first trillionths of a second after the Big Bang. The discovery was made using BICEP2 – a microwave telescope at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. The telescope is trained on a small patch of sky and makes detailed observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) – a form of electromagnetic radiation found throughout the Universe. If the team’s findings are correct, this new evidence could offer definitive proof that the Universe underwent super-rapid expansion immediately after the Big Bang – a hypothesis known as inflation theory.
Inflation theory proposes that in the picoseconds that followed the Big Bang, the Universe rapidly expanded from something infinitesimally small to about the size of a marble. The theory notes that such rapid growth would have been accompanied by waves of gravitational energy, and so would have left a lasting mark on the cosmic background radiation. BICEP2 is thought to have detected one of these “ripples”, which would seem to confirm inflation theory as fact. Astrophysicists are heralding the discovery as a significant contribution towards our knowledge of the Universe, and it’s hoped that further study of the CMB will continue to deepen our understanding of the Big Bang.
