http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26605974
Quote:
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.
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Hard to get your head around what they've found but it seems to be the light left over from the Big Bang and thus further evidence that it not only happened by happened in the way hyptotised by Scientists for a long time now.
Quote:
Inflation was first proposed in the early 1980s to explain some aspects of Big Bang Theory that appeared to not quite add up, such as why deep space looks broadly the same on all sides of the sky. The contention was that a very rapid expansion early on could have smoothed out any unevenness.
But inflation came with a very specific prediction - that it would be associated with waves of gravitational energy, and that these ripples in the fabric of space would leave an indelible mark on the oldest light in the sky - the famous Cosmic Microwave Background.
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It must be so rewarding for the Scientists that came up with these theories to see them validated decades later.
Here is a video of the guy who came up with this theory being told he was right all along:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlfIV...ature=youtu.be
I also found this post on Reddit to better explain why this is so important:
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comm...hailed/cg4unam
Quote:
Its direct proof about what happened during the big bang and inflation, The Inflationary theory of the Big Bang has been around for ~30 years, and has a good deal of indirect evidence to back it up. This discovery directly confirms our current model as the correct model, and quashes a lot of possible competing theories. Its very similar to the Higgs Boson in that regards.
What this means, is that it limits the possibilities for what a theory of Quantum Gravity and a Theory of Everything look like and further allows theorist to focus their research. It also provides experimental data for those researcher to use to hone their models.
Edit: It also means that Dark Energy is real. Not what it is, only that it exists.
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Apparently if confirmed this will be one of the greatest discoveries in the history of physics.
---------- Post added at 19:35 ---------- Previous post was at 19:26 ----------
I also think this also suggests our estimates for the age of the universe are more likely...