The Universe is incredibly smooth and homogeneous on the largest scales; in every direction we look, it looks remarkably the same. The Big Bang, which launched our Universe 13.8 billion years ago, was a hot explosion of space. This background temperature, too, is remarkably consistent across the observable universe. How did our Universe become so smooth, so homogeneous, and the background temperature so uniform? Enter the idea of cosmic inflation. This is the idea that very early in the Universe, perhaps as early as 10^-34 seconds after the Big Bang, the Universe underwent a rapid, exponential increase in size (think of going from a golf ball to the size of the solar system in less than a second!) that produced this smoothness, homogeneity and why the background temperature is so uniform. Science is driven by evidence. So whats the evidence, the proof, of this inflation epoch first postulated in the 1980s? Todays announcement that a group of astronomers using a telescope at the South Pole have found gravitational waves from the Big Bang, and that these GWs are polarized means that we have the first evidence that this theory of inflation is correct. Indeed, this may be the smoking gun that inflation actually happened! Thats why it is such a big discovery! The universe just grew weirder yet again. What caused this inflation to spring into action? What caused it to stop? Could it happen again? Dont know. Dont know. Dont know. This is new physics -- physics beyond the standard model in our jargon! This is why SCIENCE ROCKS! Every time we figure something new out, theres more questions to answer! Of this course, this evidence needs to checked by others and the experiment repeated. But we are learning brand new physics today! To bring this full circle to Carl Sagan, this reminds me of his quote: Science is not perfect. Its often misused. Its only a tool. But its the best tool we have: self-correcting, ever-changing, applicable to everything. With this tool, we vanquish the impossible.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:38:13 +0000
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