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March 18, 2014

This image shows an array of 512 conductive detectors on the BICEP2 telescope at the South Pole. The technology was fundamental to the discovery of the effect of gravitational waves from the early era of the universe known as the "Inflationary Period". Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

How does the telescope at the South Pole that discovered the gravitational waves created by the Big Bang work?

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In the yellow circle you see a normal form of polarization (E-mode) and in the blue circle you see the form of polarization and the size of the polarization that must have created only gravitational waves during inflation. You can see the same special polarization in the background radiation in the top image as well. The black lines mark the direction and polarization of the radiation. Once the team measured this polarization shape they were able to confirm both the gravitational waves and the inflation phase. In the bottom picture you see a drawing starting on the left side where the big bang happened and immediately after it the inflation (the yellow part). After the end of inflation the universe expands much more slowly (the black part) until the present day. Today we measure the cosmic background radiation that came out when the universe was 380,000 years old and pass it through polarizers to measure the polarization of the radiation (the blue part). Image: Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

First direct evidence of the existence of gravitational waves that caused the universe to swell immediately after the big bang

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The planet Hema as photographed during the third pass of the Mercury Messenger spacecraft as part of the maneuvers it conducted before entering orbit around the planet. Photo: NASA

Baby, the planet is shrinking

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A singing dog from New Guinea in captivity. Photo: shutterstock

Looking for a wild singer / Becky Crewe

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of Pelsen armored vehicles. Photo credit: Courtesy of Pelsan Sasa.

A special security session to be held as part of the Nano-Israel 2014 conference will highlight Israel's achievements in the field

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