Amazing image of the movement of the material 380,000 years after the Big Bang
Illustration of the way in which the cosmological diffuse background reaches us through time and space. © Mounting from the image of Lucy Reading-Ikkanda / Simons Foundation and Act Collaboration
New analyzes on the oldest image as possible to obtain from the universe reveal unpublished details. As incredible as it appears, it is a snapshot of the cosmos just after the Big Bang. We will never have a photo closer to the birth of the universe, because it was then simply opaque, without light. Perhaps we will obtain images built from gravitational waves thanks to Future terrestrial and spatial interferometers.
We had never seen the big bang so close, so finely
Of course, the stammering universe cannot resemble the one we observe with wonder today. The image that is the subject of this article is far from those, striking, of the James-Webb, Hubble and Euclid telescopes. But for cosmologists and astrophysicists, it is an unparalleled information treasure that has just been found.
This cosmological diffuse background, or “fossil radiation” of the Big Bang, was imagined by the Atacama Cosmology Telescop (ACT) and the results were presented yesterday.
First glow to appear, the cosmological diffuse background has been known since 1964, but it is the WMAP missions of NASA, and especially Planck de l'ESA in 2013, which allowed major advances in our understanding of the universe: more precise determination of its age, its “speed” of expansion, etc. He shows him only 380,000 years old.
New image of the information background diffuse by Act compared to that of the Planck mission of ESA. © Act Collaboration; ESA/Planck collaboration
Observe the appearance of matter as we know it today
Polarization of light from the first clusters, or ranges of material 380,000 years after the Big Bang. © Act Collaboration
The resolution of the ACT is five times finer than that of the Planck mission, according to the researchers. It made it possible to visualize the polarization of light, therefore the displacement of hydrogen and helium in these times near the big bang. “Before, we could see where things were. Now we also observe how they moverejoices Suzanne Staggs, Director of Act. As using tides to infer the presence of the Moon, the movement followed by the polarization of light tells us how strong the attraction of gravity was in different parts of the space. ”
New successful tests for the standard cosmology model
This new image also makes it possible to verify many hypotheses concerning the universe, such as the expansion rate, the amount of dark matter it contains, etc. According to David Spergel, former head of ACT analysis, “OUR Standard cosmology model (Λcdm, nda) has just undergone its most rigorous test set. The results are there and it seems very healthy. We have tested it for the new physics in many different ways and see no proof of new things. ”
Indeed, all alternative models at λcdm tested by the team have been invalidated by its new measures. The standard Big Bang model with cold dark matter remains unbeatable, despite its 95 % energy content which still escapes our understanding.
