Scientists have proposed new instruments that would use spectroscopy to decode dark matter, dark energy and cosmic inflation.
Big Bang
Scientists are pretty sure the universe started with the Big Bang. But the furthest back in time we can explore is 370,000 years after spacetime began. So, how do we measure the Big Bang, and how could our favorite friends — neutrinos — revolutionize our understanding of the early universe? In this video, physicist Kirsty Duffy explores these concepts and discusses the cosmic neutrino background.
Perhaps the grandest questions of all are those of how the universe came to be, how it has evolved, and how it will end. While modern science does not have all the answers, the scientific community has discovered many facts that allow us to understand much of this story. In this public lecture, presented on Dec. 9, 2022, Don Lincoln explains what we know — and what we don’t know — about these ageless questions.
The cosmic microwave background has been a treasure trove of information about the universe, as well as a source of questions that have not yet been resolved. In this video, Don Lincoln describes two unsolved mysteries of the CMB. The first makes you ask if the solar system has a special place in the universe, and the second is a giant cold spot that could be the signature of a giant void or, much more unlikely, of colliding universes.
The cosmic microwave background is the fossil remnant of the fireball of the Big Bang. Aside from demonstrating that the Big Bang happened, it can tell us how big the universe is and how much dark matter and energy the universe contains. In this video, Fermilab’s Don Lincoln guides you through this interesting topic.
We have the good fortune of living in a universe with tacos. But why does the universe have tasty treats, people, stars and all sorts of matter, instead of nothing at all? In this episode of Even Bananas, Fermilab’s Kirsty Duffy and neutrino theorist Pedro Machado explain how understanding neutrinos is crucial to understanding our universe’s evolution. Grab your lunch, and let’s talk about breaking fundamental symmetries.
From CNN, November 4, 2021: Fermilab’s Don Lincoln examines the astronomical measurements recorded from a laboratory at the South Pole to explain one of the theories of, “How did the universe come into existence?”
People who encounter the theory of the Big Bang for the first time often ask, “So where did it happen?” In this video, Don Lincoln tells us the answer – everywhere.
The existence of hydrogen in our universe was touch-and-go. During the Big Bang, it depended on a minuscule mass difference between two subatomic particles called quarks.
From Forbes, Feb. 25, 2021: Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln writes about a supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan that explores the history of the universe by simulating over 4,000 universes.