The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is hosting a live-streaming event today at 11:55 am during which it’s expected to announce a discovery some believe may speak to our understanding of the beginning of the universe, though that’s unconfirmed.
If speculation is correct, the discovery would involve the earliest known “evidence of primordial gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime that were produced in the early universe.” The waves are believed to date back approximately 14 billion years ago and would offer a sense of what our universe was like at its beginning.
More background is available here. Though cautious, scientists and cosmology buffs are eagerly awaiting the announcement.
According to The Guardian: “The signal is rumored to have been found by a specialized telescope called Bicep (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) at the south pole.”
Gravitational waves were the last untested prediction of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.
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