Tweaking the universe
Scientists with the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite program released findings last week that refined our understanding of the universe, showing it to be a little older, containing a bit more mysterious dark matter, and expanding a tad slower than previously thought. The satellite, launched in 2009, provided the most precise map so far of what scientists call the “cosmic microwave background,” the faintest echoes of the universe 370,000 years after the Big Bang, the originating cosmic explosion. That later time represents a key moment in the universe’s history, when the hot gas from the Big Bang finally cooled enough to become transparent, allowing radiation to escape for the first time. In a question-and-answer session, Gazette Staff Writer Alvin Powell talked with Harvard Astronomy Department Chair Avi Loeb, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science and a theoretical physicist studying the early universe, about the findings. GAZETTE: What can you...