BICEP2 – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 Joint Dust Analysis Deflates Big Bang Signal https://www.quantamagazine.org/taking-stock-of-the-big-bang-theory-of-inflation-20150130/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/taking-stock-of-the-big-bang-theory-of-inflation-20150130/#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2015 15:52:06 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=15484 No definitive evidence for cosmic inflation is found, but support remains strong for the theory even as critics highlight its shortcomings as an explanation for how and why the universe began.

The post Joint Dust Analysis Deflates Big Bang Signal first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Last March, when a group of astronomers announced that they had detected faint swirls in the sky that almost certainly reflected undulations in the shape of the early universe, experts agreed it could be one of the greatest cosmological discoveries of all time. If confirmed, the undulating “gravitational waves” would amount to near-proof of the Big Bang theory known as inflation...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/taking-stock-of-the-big-bang-theory-of-inflation-20150130/feed/ 9 ‘Big Bang Signal’ Could All Be Dust https://www.quantamagazine.org/big-bang-signal-could-all-be-caused-by-dust-planck-team-says-20140921/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/big-bang-signal-could-all-be-caused-by-dust-planck-team-says-20140921/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2014 01:42:16 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=13437 The post ‘Big Bang Signal’ Could All Be Dust first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> There was little need, before, to know exactly how much dust peppers outer space, far from the plane of the Milky Way. Scientists understood that the dimly radiating grains aligned with our galaxy’s magnetic field and that the field’s twists and turns gave a subtle swirl to the dust glow. But those swirls were too faint to see. Only since March, when researchers claimed to have glimpsed the edge...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/big-bang-signal-could-all-be-caused-by-dust-planck-team-says-20140921/feed/ 8 A Bold Critic of the Big Bang’s ‘Smoking Gun’ https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-bold-critic-of-the-big-bangs-smoking-gun-20140703/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-bold-critic-of-the-big-bangs-smoking-gun-20140703/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:33:51 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=11920 The post A Bold Critic of the Big Bang’s ‘Smoking Gun’ first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In mid-March, a panel of four astrophysicists working on an experiment to probe the first moments of time held an extraordinary press conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Mass. The scientists announced that a radio telescope located at the South Pole had discovered gravitational waves generated by the Big Bang. They posted a non-peer-reviewed paper on...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-bold-critic-of-the-big-bangs-smoking-gun-20140703/feed/ 4 Early-Universe Explorer Looks for Answers https://www.quantamagazine.org/chao-lin-kuo-early-universe-explorer-looks-for-answers-in-bicep2-and-beyond-20140703/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/chao-lin-kuo-early-universe-explorer-looks-for-answers-in-bicep2-and-beyond-20140703/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2014 14:47:59 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=11985 The post Early-Universe Explorer Looks for Answers first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> On March 17, a panel of four astrophysicists held a press conference at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., to announce that they had discovered features in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that are consistent with gravitational waves from the universe’s first moments. The results agreed with predictions from the decades-old theory of inflation...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/chao-lin-kuo-early-universe-explorer-looks-for-answers-in-bicep2-and-beyond-20140703/feed/ 1 Possible Echo of Big Bang Detected https://www.quantamagazine.org/bicep2-telescope-detects-possible-gravitational-waves-20140317/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/bicep2-telescope-detects-possible-gravitational-waves-20140317/#comments Mon, 17 Mar 2014 16:07:46 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=9914 The post Possible Echo of Big Bang Detected first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Editor’s note: In the months after this article appeared, further analysis of the BICEP2 data has revealed that the signal is most likely due to dust, not gravitational waves. For additional coverage of this issue, please see our articles “‘Big Bang Signal’ Could Be All Dust” and “Joint Dust Analysis Deflates Big Bang Signal.” A telescope at the South Pole has detected subtle swirls in ancient...

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