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Koyal Group Info Mag - A new look at the Big Bang, moments later

Scientists hailed the finding as a transformative event that will provide deep and complicated questions for physicists to explore as well as transfix the imagination of the broader public, because it gives insight into a foundational question in physics: How did the universe begin?

Scientists hailed the finding as a transformative event that will provide deep and complicated questions for physicists to explore as well as transfix the imagination of the broader public, because it gives insight into a foundational question in physics: How did the universe begin?

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The Harvard-led team took a different approach. One prediction of <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>ory is th<strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> rapid expansion would have<br />

left behind a fingerprint — a particular p<strong>at</strong>tern of polarized light in <strong>the</strong> cosmic microwave background. This faint light all<br />

across <strong>the</strong> sky is <strong>the</strong> afterglow of <strong>the</strong> <strong>Big</strong> <strong>Bang</strong>, emitted 380,000 years after <strong>the</strong> explosion, and <strong>the</strong> telltale p<strong>at</strong>tern was<br />

cre<strong>at</strong>ed when <strong>the</strong> light interacted with gravit<strong>at</strong>ional waves.<br />

Using a telescope called BICEP2 <strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> South Pole, <strong>the</strong> team claims to have detected th<strong>at</strong> swirly polariz<strong>at</strong>ion p<strong>at</strong>tern,<br />

called B-mode polariz<strong>at</strong>ion. If confirmed by o<strong>the</strong>r experiments, it will be strong evidence of infl<strong>at</strong>ion and help guide<br />

scientists to which particular version of infl<strong>at</strong>ion is <strong>the</strong> correct one.

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