News of the Early Universe: Findings from the cosmic microwave background

The most detailed snapshots so far of the infant universe are confirming that the cosmos consists mostly of mystery material, called dark energy, that accelerates the universe’s expansion.

The new evidence comes from the Arcminute Cosmology Bolometer Array Receiver (ACBAR), a South Pole network of 16 detectors that probes the temperature of the Big Bang’s remnant radiation, known as the cosmic microwave background.