Last Monday, astronomers announced what has been described as “the biggest thing since dark energy” – detection of gravitational waves from the afterglow of the big bang. We got astronomer Dr. Alan Duffy from Swinburne University on to tell us what that means, and what it says about the very early stages of our Universe.
More information:
First hints of gravitational waves in the Big Bang’s afterglow
Cosmologists Finally Capture an Elusive Signal From the Beginning of Time
Shocked Physicist Learns His Big Bang Theory Is True [Video]
Cosmic Inflation Explained (PHD Comics)
Bicep2 will allow us to work out how hot the big bang was
This episode uses clips from Stanford Professor Andrei Linde celebrates physics breakthrough, a video made by Kurt Hickman and produced by Bjorn Carey. Used under Creative Commons license.
Dr. Alan Duffy is a theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist at Swinburne University, investigating how galaxies form, the nature of dark matter and the large scale properties of the Universe. He’s a co-host of Pint in the Sky, a vodcast about astrophysics in a pub. For more of his talks, interviews and writings see his webpage.
Download here. Duration: [0:37:31]