"We Can Glimpse the Universe Before the Big Bang": One of World's Leading Physicists

The circular patterns within the cosmic microwave background suggest that space and time did not come into being at the Big Bang but that our universe in fact continually cycles through a series of "aeons," according to University of Oxford theoretical physicist Roger Penrose, who says that data collected by NASA's WMAP satellite supports his idea of "conformal cyclic cosmology".

Collected from: "We Can Glimpse the Universe Before the Big Bang": One of World's Leading Physicists

Scientists glimpse universe before the Big Bang

Black hole encounters would have repeated themselves several times, with the center of each event remaining at almost exactly the same point in the CMB sky, even when occurring in different aeons. The huge amounts of energy released would appear as spherical, low-variance radiation bursts in the CMB. Image credit: Gurzadyan and Penrose.

Collected from: Scientists glimpse universe before the Big Bang

Penrose claims to have glimpsed universe before Big Bang - physicsworld.com

WMAP's view of the past: can it see beyond the Big Bang?

Seeing through the Big Bang
According to Penrose and Gurzadyan, these circles allow us to "see through" the Big Bang into the aeon that would have existed beforehand. The circles, they say, are the marks left in our aeon by the spherical ripples of gravitational waves that were generated when black holes collided in the previous aeon. And they say that these circles pose a problem for inflationary theory because this theory says that the distribution of temperature variations across the sky should be Gaussian, or random, rather than having discernable structures within it.

Collected from: Penrose claims to have glimpsed universe before Big Bang - physicsworld.com