Liffrea
08-19-2009, 01:33 PM
How the universe began is literally the biggest question there is (as any logician would ask where you'd keep something bigger), and space scientists are searching for answers in the simplest possible way: going and having a look. We don't have time-machines just yet, but the Planck satellite is collecting the very first light ever emitted.
After the big bang (or whatever non-universe-to-universe transition you favor) everything ended up composed of extremely hot hydrogen plasma, so thick that light couldn't pass through without being absorbed. As everything ever expanded this plasma became thinner until light could pass through. The universe was less than a million years old at this point, and that first light is still shining on as a "Cosmic Microwave Background" (CMB), recording the configuration of the infant universe in its pattern.
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/08/satellite-time-machine-the-search-for-1st-light-in-universe.html
After the big bang (or whatever non-universe-to-universe transition you favor) everything ended up composed of extremely hot hydrogen plasma, so thick that light couldn't pass through without being absorbed. As everything ever expanded this plasma became thinner until light could pass through. The universe was less than a million years old at this point, and that first light is still shining on as a "Cosmic Microwave Background" (CMB), recording the configuration of the infant universe in its pattern.
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/08/satellite-time-machine-the-search-for-1st-light-in-universe.html