Via Forbes: The Big Bang and expansion of the Universe leads us to extrapolate back to the start of the universe – the Big Bang. And the soup of matter created in those first seconds.
If (the Big Bang) were true, there would be an early signal left over from when the Universe was just one second old: neutrinos and antineutrinos. Known as the cosmic neutrino background (CNB), it was theorized generations ago, but was dismissed as undetectable. Until now. A very clever team of scientists has just found a way to see it. The data is in, and the results are incontrovertible: the cosmic neutrino background is real, and agrees with the Big Bang.
Neutrinos are some of the most surprising and elusive particles in the Universe. They were predicted in 1930 to explain radioactive decays; their name means “tiny, neutral one” to explain the fact that they must carry energy and momentum, but cannot have charge and must be incredibly low in mass. It wasn’t until we developed nuclear reactors that we were able to first detect their presence, a feat that wasn’t accomplished until 1956.
Now that we’ve not only detected the Cosmic Neutrino Background, but confirmed its existence, it’s time to learn everything we can. It wasn’t clear, even with all the data we’ve collected so far, that we’d be able to identify this signal when put up against all the other sources of uncertainty (like nonlinear evolution), but the effect clearly shines through. Most importantly, it’s a spectacular confirmation of the Big Bang, which once again demonstrates that it’s the only viable game in town.
