AFTER carefully studying the faint microwave echo of the big bang, three
teams of astrophysicists say that our Universe really did start out much smaller
than an atom and then expanded faster than light, exploding in size during its
first fraction of a second in existence. It’s the best evidence yet for what’s
called “inflation” theory.
Last year experimenters working with Boomerang and Maxima, microwave
telescopes attached to high-altitude balloons, reported the most detailed images
yet of the cosmic microwave background. This is radiation from the big bang that
pervades all of space. The researchers found faint hot spots in…
