Pole position

• Autores: Govert Schilling
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2918, 2013, págs. 36-39
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The newborn universe was incredibly dense, insanely hot and filled with energetic radiation. As the universe expanded and cooled, the radiation's energy became diluted and its wavelength was stretched until, almost 14 billion years later, nothing is left but an all-pervading glow of microwaves. Studying this cosmic microwave background (CMB), often dubbed the "afterglow of creation", is the best way for cosmologists to decipher the infancy and subsequent evolution of the cosmos. For instance, minute temperature variations in the CMB, which were first discovered by space missions in the 1990s, revealed the existence of over-dense and under-dense patches of primordial matter that grew into the galaxy clusters and voids one sees in the universe today. Here, Schilling discusses why the most inhospitable places on Earth are the best spots to witness the birth of the universe.