Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Unveiling the Infant Universe with Unprecedented Clarity

An international team of astronomers, utilizing the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), has achieved the clearest images yet of the universe in its early stages. These images capture light from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) that has journeyed over 13 billion years, offering a glimpse into the universe as it existed approximately 380,000 years after the Big Bang. The research showcases the intensity and polarization of this primordial light with remarkable clarity, providing detailed insights into the formation of ancient hydrogen and helium clouds. The team's analysis supports a straightforward model of the universe and refines the estimated age to 13.8 billion years, with a remarkably low uncertainty of just 0.1%. Furthermore, the ACT team's findings corroborate a lower value for the Hubble constant, which measures the rate at which the universe is expanding. These refined measurements contribute to our understanding of the universe's fundamental properties and evolution.