Friday, October 13, 2023

Big Bang: Cardiff uni part of space telescope mission

Catriona Aitken - BBC News
Thu, October 12, 2023 



Computer illustration representing the origin of the universe

A space telescope mission studying the creation of the universe will use experts and technology at a Welsh university.

The project will look at the Big Bang and how the universe was created more than 13.7 billion years ago.

Experts and technology from Cardiff University will help analyse the dying embers left over from the Big Bang.

The project lead said the institution's "unique technologies" enabled the "ground-breaking experiment" to happen.

The Lite satellite for the study of B-mode polarization and inflation from cosmic background Radiation Detection (LiteBIRD) mission, will test the current theory surrounding the universe's formation.

Astronomers believe that, immediately after the Big Bang, the universe underwent an extremely rapid expansion, a process called cosmological inflation.

The theory predicts primordial gravitational waves - the very first ripples in space and time in our universe - should result from this rapid expansion and could be seen in light from the very edge of the observable universe.

LiteBIRD aims to launch in the early 2030s with a combination of high, mid, and low frequency telescopes.

Professors Peter Hargrave and Erminia Calabrese of Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy will lead the UK contribution to the mission, and design and build the optics for two of the telescopes.

Prof Hargrave said: "LiteBIRD will precisely investigate specific properties of this CMB light, to enable us to look for evidence of gravitational waves that should have been caused by inflation, directly after the Big Bang.

"This will confirm, or rule out, broad classes of inflation models, and greatly enhance our understanding of the origins of our universe."

He added: "It's great that unique technologies developed by Cardiff University and our UK collaborators can enable such a ground-breaking experiment."

An initial £2.7m from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) will enable a team of UK scientists led by Prof Hargrave to design LiteBIRD's highly specialised telescopes and the production of the unique lenses and filters at Cardiff University.

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