Astronomers detect subtle twist in the universe’s early light

Astronomers scanning the faint background radiation that was left over from shortly after the Big Bang have found that it has a slight magnetic 'twist' to it, and their discovery could help answer questions about the origin of our universe.

One of the biggest discoveries that allowed us to date the universe was finding the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This pattern of radiation, seen stretched across the universe around us, was produced by hot, ionized gases, shortly after the universe was born. This excellent video from the European Southern Observatory shows us everything we've learned from it so far.

One of the latest findings (shown at roughly 1:45 in the video), is that the matter in our universe, whether it's visible matter or dark matter, has actually twisted and bent the photons' paths over time due to gravitational lensing. It was astronomers using the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and data from the Herschel Space Telescope that found this, by examining the 'magnetic' polarization of the light.

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This is a very subtle discovery, but it could have big implications.

Now that they're able to read the magnetic polarization in the CMB, and see how it was affected by gravitational lensing, they can use what they've found to search the CMB for gravitational waves. If they manage to find these 'ripples' in the fabric of space-time happening shortly after the Big Bang, it would support the idea that our universe underwent a rapid expansion shortly after it was born, and it would bring us closer to answering the questions we have about how our universe began.

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