26 MAY 02: IT’S COSMIC
BACKGROUND, BROTHER!

This Cosmic Background Imager
picture reveals faint microwave radiation from the

farthest reaches of the
universe. The colors depict different radiation

intensities, with reds showing
cooler areas and the light colors showing hotter

ones.

Image could show cosmos
at 300,000 years old

May 23, 2002 Posted: 12:56
PM EDT (1656 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — New
images of the early universe — a time before there

were galaxies, stars or
planets — show the cosmic ripples that eventually

became every bit of matter
and energy, scientists reported on Thursday.

    The pictures,
made by a scientific instrument called the Cosmic Background

Imager on a remote plateau
in Chile, are the most detailed images of the oldest

light ever emitted, the
researchers said in a statement.

    The light
the Imager captured is from perhaps 300,000 years after the

theoretical Big Bang explosion
that many scientists believe marked the start of

the universe.

    The Imager
detected tiny variations in the cosmic microwave background, the

radiation that has traveled
to Earth over almost 14 billion years, according to

the U.S. National Science
Foundation, which funded the research along with the

California Institute of
Technology.

    The images
make the cosmic background radiation look like a blurred flame, but

they actually are the first
seeds of matter and energy that later evolved into

clusters of hundreds of
galaxies.

    “We have
seen, for the first time, the seeds that gave rise to clusters of

galaxies, thus putting theories
of galaxy formation on a firm observational

footing,” said Caltech scientist
Anthony Readhead.

    Measurements
taken by the instrument add to evidence supporting the notion of

cosmic inflation, a period
of furious expansion instants after the Big Bang.

    These
findings may also help scientists learn more about “dark energy,” a

mysterious repulsive force
that seems to defy gravity and pushes the universe to

expand at an ever-quickening
rate.