First Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation (and First Images of Gravitational Waves)
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2014-05
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26605974
This is the most significant observational result in the field of cosmology in 11 years, since WMAP established Lambda-CDM in 2003. Probably also just as significant as any since 1998/1999 ("Dark Energy"). If Inflationary Cosmology is correct then this confirms gravitational waves, and if gravitational waves exist then this confirms Inflationary Cosmology. To make it a more compelling proof, we'd need direct observations of gravitational waves from some other source, but everything in this is very self-consistent so far. Other indirect evidence of gravitational waves exists, from the decay rates of the orbits of binary pulsars, eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulse%E2%80%93Taylor_binary
I am absolutely stunned. Plenty of cosmologists and theoretical physicists will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day today. ;-)
http://www.universetoday.com/110403/that-moment-when-the-father-of-inflation-learns-of-the-detection-of-gravitational-waves/#ixzz2wF2cGSKN
This means that the whole universe is in fact at least 1078 3×1070 times as big in volume as the observable universe. That is no longer just a speculation to make some equations fit what we see, but an observationally verified theory. Everything in the vast unreachable depths of the observable universe as we have known it up to this moment, everything that we will ever be as a species with every technology we will ever develop, everything that we will ever see with the most powerful telescopes that we will ever build, compared to the entire universe, is just an invisible irrelevant pinpoint, vanishingly small...
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26605974
This is the most significant observational result in the field of cosmology in 11 years, since WMAP established Lambda-CDM in 2003. Probably also just as significant as any since 1998/1999 ("Dark Energy"). If Inflationary Cosmology is correct then this confirms gravitational waves, and if gravitational waves exist then this confirms Inflationary Cosmology. To make it a more compelling proof, we'd need direct observations of gravitational waves from some other source, but everything in this is very self-consistent so far. Other indirect evidence of gravitational waves exists, from the decay rates of the orbits of binary pulsars, eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulse%E2%80%93Taylor_binary
I am absolutely stunned. Plenty of cosmologists and theoretical physicists will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day today. ;-)
http://www.universetoday.com/110403/that-moment-when-the-father-of-inflation-learns-of-the-detection-of-gravitational-waves/#ixzz2wF2cGSKN
This means that the whole universe is in fact at least 1078 3×1070 times as big in volume as the observable universe. That is no longer just a speculation to make some equations fit what we see, but an observationally verified theory. Everything in the vast unreachable depths of the observable universe as we have known it up to this moment, everything that we will ever be as a species with every technology we will ever develop, everything that we will ever see with the most powerful telescopes that we will ever build, compared to the entire universe, is just an invisible irrelevant pinpoint, vanishingly small...