http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/05/23/cosmic.snapshot.reut/index.html
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.
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wow, will be interesting to see where this goes....