Scientists detect first direct evidence for Big Bang theory

Researchers from the BICEP2 collaboration have announced the first direct evidence that supports the "cosmic inflation" theory.

The data also represented the first images of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time, that had been described as the "first tremors of the Big Bang".

The data also confirmed a deep connection between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

ANI quoted Chao-Lin Kuo, an assistant professor of physics at Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and a co-leader of the BICEP2 collaboration as saying this was really exciting. The team, he added, had made the first direct image of gravitational waves, or ripples in space-time across the primordial sky, and verified a theory about the creation of the whole universe.

The ground-breaking results have come from observations of the cosmic microwave background, a faint glow left over from the Big Bang, by the BICEP2 telescope.

Tiny fluctuations in this afterglow offer clues to the conditions that existed during the early phase of the universe, the BBC reported. For instance, small differences in temperature across the sky showed where parts of the universe were denser, eventually condensing into galaxies and galactic clusters, the report said.

The cosmic microwave background being a form of light, exhibited all the properties of light, including polarisation.

According to researchers, they had found the signal left in the sky by the super-rapid expansion of space that must have occurred just fractions of a second after everything came into being.

It took the form of a distinctive twist in the oldest light detectable with telescopes.

The researchers had been looking for a residual marker for "inflation" – the concept of an exponential growth spurt in the first trillionth, of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second.

BICEP data showed gravitational waves from inflation created a distinct twist pattern in the polarisation of the cosmic microwave background.

According to the theory, this would have taken the infant universe from something unimaginably small to something about the size of a marble. Space had continued expanding for the nearly 14 billion years since.

Inflation was first proposed in the early 1980s to explain certain aspects of Big Bang Theory that seemed not to add up, such as why deep space looked broadly the same on all sides of the sky, and the offered explanation was - a very rapid expansion early on could have smoothed out any unevenness.

Inflation, however, came with a specific prediction of an association with waves of gravitational energy. Also the ripples in the fabric of space would leave an indelible mark on the oldest light in the sky - the famous Cosmic Microwave Background.