Apr 20 2000
From The Space Library
NASA revealed what it called "the first detailed images of the early universe," captured by the Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics (BOOMERANG) experiment. For the BOOMERANG experiment, scientists had suspended a powerful telescope from a research balloon circumnavigating the Antarctic. Andrew E. Lange of California Institute of Technology called the experiment and the resulting images "an incredible triumph of modern cosmology." For the most part, the data, obtained by closely measuring variations in the microwave background radiation, confirmed scientists' existing theory that, in its earliest days, the universe was flatter than it is today. According to this theory, confirmed by other evidence besides these images, the universe is flat and forever expanding. In summarizing the significance of the experiment, one Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher stated, "it's confirmation of the prediction of our best theory of what caused the structure of the universe.”
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