Antarctica Hears Little Matter in the Big Bang
Explanation:
On the frozen tundra near the bottom of our world, increasingly sophisticated instruments
listen for a more precise echo of how our universe started.
Sunday, independent collaborations behind three such instruments
announced evidence that overtones heard are consistent with our universe
having only about five percent normal matter and 95 percent
dark matter or
dark energy.
This amount of matter was expected were
our universe to have undergone a particularly
explosive early phase of the big bang known as
inflation.
The measurements were actually made on the
angular scale of 1/10th degree by detecting slight fluctuations of
microwave light that occur in
cosmic background radiation.
These
fluctuations are thought
to be caused by sound waves moving through the early universe.
Pictured above is the remote receiver for the
Degree Angular Scale Interferometer
(DASI) that recorded one of the data sets.
Similar results were reported Sunday by the
BOOMERANG and
MAXIMA collaborations.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
