Polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background
By Matthew Hedman
Astronomers search for clues about the dynamics of the early universe in the ancient afterglow of the Big Bang
This Article From Issue
May-June 2005
Volume 93, Number 3
Page 236
DOI: 10.1511/2005.53.236
In the summer of 2002, a team of astronomers working with an instrument at the South Pole, called the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI), made an announcement to a packed auditorium in downtown Chicago. These scientists had discovered that the afterglow of the Big Bang, the cosmic microwave background radiation, or CMB, is slightly polarized—the electric fields in these microwaves are preferentially oriented.
Image courtesy of John Kovac/DASI
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