Discoveringourorigins.pptVIP

Discovering our origins Issue.1047 March,26 2014 Do you need a detox? Discovering our origins Telescope BICEP2 is powerful enough to detect evidence of how the universe was created. afp /wiki/Cosmic_inflation According to the Big Bang model, the?universe?expanded from an extremely dense and hot state and continues to expand today. The graphic scheme above is an artists concept illustrating the expansion of a portion of a flat universe. /wiki/Cosmic_inflation In?physical cosmology,?cosmic inflation,?cosmological inflation, or just?inflation?is the?expansion of space?in the early?universe?at a rate much faster than the?speed of light. The?inflationary epoch?lasted from 10?36?seconds after the?Big Bang?to sometime between 10?33?and 10?32?seconds. Following the inflationary period, the universe continues to expand, but at a slower rate. Skimming and scanning: Find the answers to the following quesitons as quickly as possible. 1. When and how did the universe come into being? 2.What did scientists discover recently? Scientists announced on March 17 that they had discovered what many consider the holy grail of their field: ripples in the fabric of space-time that are echoes of cosmic inflation that took place just after the Big Bang, Reuters reported. General Questions The universe was born almost 14 billion years ago, exploding into existence in an event called the Big Bang. 3.Why is the discovery of the ripples so important? 4.Who made this discovery? Predicted by Albert Einstein nearly a century ago, the discovery of the ripples, called gravitational waves , is a major achievement in one of the greatest triumphs of the human intellect: an understanding of the origins and the evolution of the universe. General Questions The discovery, yet to be verified by other observations, was made by a collaboration that includes researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the University of Minnesota, Stanford University, the California Institu