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The strongest evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang (bigthink.com)

submitted 2 years ago by btaf45@lemmy.world to c/astronomy@mander.xyz

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[–] btaf45@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It was written by Ethan Siegal, one of the most popular cosmologists. It's long and says a lot, but the key takeaway is that we know that the hot big bang was preceded and set up by a previous phase of the universe believed to be "cosmic inflation", which had an unknown length and could have lasted billions or trillions of years. BICEP2 is not necessary to prove cosmic inflation.

[–] solrize@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Usually inflation refers to a period after the big bang rather than before it. BICEP2 seemed to detect anisotropy in the CMB that pointed to something before the big bang, but that measurement turned out to be erroneous.

I hadn't heard of Ethan Siegel. If you're saying the article is legit then I'll give it another read. I stopped the first time because I got bot vibes from some wordings. Thanks.

[–] blackbrook@mander.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

I didn't get bot vibes, but I also thought it took too long to get to the point. It did an awful lot of stepwise walking to how we determine which theory fits the patterns--I assume to handhold lay readers. I'm pretty lay but I found it tedious. But of course there is always someone who needs more hanging than you do.