March 18, 2014

Polarization patterns in the cosmic microwave background radiation (Image BICEP2 collaboration)

The discovery announced by Harvard University is the one hoped for by the scientists of all the world: the BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) experiment has detected the gravitational wave in the perturbations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation existing in the universe. It’s a kind of echo from the period of what is called cosmic inflation, which occurred immediately after the Big Bang.