Microwave radiation shows echoes of previous Big Bang-like events
The microwave radiation that fills the universe shows evidence of events from before the Big Bang, scientists tell the BBC. These appear as “rings” around galaxy clusters with an unusually low variation in the background, and support a theory that contradicts the widely held “inflationary theory,” which says that the universe was shaped by a large, fast expansion from a single point. Cosmologist Roger Penrose, who was knighted for his services to science, and colleague Vahe Gurzadyan of Yerevan State University have found what they think is evidence of events that predate the Big Bang, which suggest a new theory, called “conformal cyclic cosmology,” that precludes the need to set a theoretical beginning to the universe. “In the standard Big Bang model, there’s nothing cyclic; it has a beginning and it has no end,” Shaun Cole of the University of Durham told the BBC.”The philosophical question that’s sensible to ask is ‘what came before the Big Bang?’; and what they’re striving for here is to do away with that ‘there’s nothing before’ answer by making it cyclical.”