Cosmic Inflation

First direct evidence of cosmic inflation

Telescope at the South Pole finds twists in microwave-light remnants from the Big Bang, showing evidence for inflation and gravitational waves

March 18, 2014

Graduate student Justus Brevik tests the BICEP2 telescope readout electronics (credit: Steffen Richter (Harvard University)

Researchers from the BICEP2 telescope collaboration announced Monday the first direct evidence for cosmic inflation.

The inflation theory posits that almost 14 billion years ago, the universe we inhabit burst into existence in an extraordinary event that initiated the Big Bang. In the first fleeting fraction of a second, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching far beyond the current view of our best telescopes.