Cosmic Inflation
Abstract
In 1964, scientists discovered a faint radio hiss coming from the heavens and realized that the hiss wasn’t just noise. It was a message from eons ago; specifically the remnants of the primordial fireball, cooled to about 3 degrees above absolute zero. Subsequent research revealed that the radio hiss was the same in every direction. The temperature of the early universe was uniform to at better than a part in a hundred thousand. And this was weird. According to the prevailing theory, the two sides of the universe have never been in contact. So how could two places that had never been in contact be so similar? One possible explanation was proposed in 1979. Called inflation, the theory required that early in the history of the universe, the universe expanded faster than the speed of light. Confused? Watch this video as Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln makes sense of this mind-bending idea.
- Authors:
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- FNAL (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States))
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1189958
- Resource Type:
- Multimedia
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; COSMIC INFLATION; COSMIC; INFLATION; SPACE; UNIVERSE; BIG BANG; UNIVERSE EXPANSION; EXPANSION; MASS; POSITIVE MASS ENERGY; NEGATIVE MASS ENERGY
Citation Formats
Lincoln, Don. Cosmic Inflation. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web.
Lincoln, Don. Cosmic Inflation. United States.
Lincoln, Don. Sat .
"Cosmic Inflation". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1189958.
@article{osti_1189958,
title = {Cosmic Inflation},
author = {Lincoln, Don},
abstractNote = {In 1964, scientists discovered a faint radio hiss coming from the heavens and realized that the hiss wasn’t just noise. It was a message from eons ago; specifically the remnants of the primordial fireball, cooled to about 3 degrees above absolute zero. Subsequent research revealed that the radio hiss was the same in every direction. The temperature of the early universe was uniform to at better than a part in a hundred thousand. And this was weird. According to the prevailing theory, the two sides of the universe have never been in contact. So how could two places that had never been in contact be so similar? One possible explanation was proposed in 1979. Called inflation, the theory required that early in the history of the universe, the universe expanded faster than the speed of light. Confused? Watch this video as Fermilab’s Dr. Don Lincoln makes sense of this mind-bending idea.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Sat Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}