Posted on 05/24/2002 8:06:47 AM PDT by dead
Washington: Astronomers today published images of the universe in its earliest stages that were captured at an observatory high in the Chilean Andes, reinforcing the Big Bang theory of the origin of galaxies.
The images show the oldest light ever emitted by the universe in the closest detail ever observed, and were taken by the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena.
Researchers were able to detect minute variations in the cosmic microwave background, radiation that has travelled to earth over almost 14 billion years.
A map of temperature fluctuations shows the first tentative seeds of matter and energy that would later evolve into clusters of hundreds of galaxies, according to the scientists.
The measurements provide evidence of part of the Big Bang theory - that of inflation, which speculates that the universe underwent a violent expansion in its first micro-moments.
After about 300,000 years the universe cooled enough to allow the seeds of matter to form and became "transparent," allowing light to pass through, with remnants of that energy observed by the imager.
The data also provided new information about the repulsive force called "dark energy" that appears to defy gravity and force the universe to accelerate at an ever-increasing pace.
"We have seen, for the first time, the seeds that gave rise to clusters of galaxies, thus putting theories of galaxy formation on a firm observational footing," said team leader Anthony Readhead of Caltech.
"These unique high-resolution observations provide a new set of critical tests of cosmology, and provide new and independent evidence that the universe is flat and is dominated by dark matter and dark energy," he added.
Readhead, along with Caltech colleagues Steve Padin and Timothy Pearson, plus others from Canada, Chile and the United States, worked to generate the measurements of the cosmic microwave background.
"This is basic research at its finest and most exciting," said NSF director Rita Colwell. "Each new image of the early universe refines our model of how it all began."
Numerous researchers believe that 95 per cent of the mass of the universe is invisible, made up of 50 per cent vacuum and 45 per cent dark matter.
Using a far superior resolution, the CBI has been working on research begun by the US Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite which 10 years ago first highlighted evidence of fluctuations of the first light of the cosmos.
The observatory, located in the world's driest desert at Atacama, Chile is some 5,080 metres above sea level. Extremely low humidity there optimises the equipment's observation capabilities.
Five papers on the CBI data were submitted today to the Astrophysical Journal for publication.
Numerous researchers believe that 95 per cent of the mass of the universe is invisible, made up of 50 per cent vacuum and 45 per cent dark matter.There's a puzzler for you. In what sense can a vacuum be considered mass?
vacuum = a space empty of matter
How can 95% of the mass of the universe consist of 50% space empty of matter?
Must be products of government schools.
You look at this (below) and tell me that it doesn't have mass...
Each cm3 of vacuum contains more energy than the entire other 1/2 of the universe.What kind of energy, and what is the source of that energy?
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