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Of cosmic, rapid inflation

New York: Physicists have announced they now have definitive evidence to show the universe went through extremely rapid expansion in the moments after the big bang, growing from the size of a marble to a volume larger than all of observable space in less than a trillion-trillionth of a second. The discovery is the first direct evidence to support a two-decade-old theory that the universe went through what is called inflation.

It also helps explain how matter clumped together into planets, stars and galaxies in a universe that began as a smooth, super-hot soup.

Researchers found the evidence by looking at a faint glow that permeates the universe. That glow, known as the cosmic microwave background, was produced when the universe was about 300,000 years old . - AP

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