Atacama Cosmology Telescope Maps Early Universe

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile has produced new measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the light emitted approximately 380,000 years after the Big Bang. These measurements provide a detailed look at the density and velocity of gases in the early universe. ACT's data, with five times the resolution and greater sensitivity than the Planck satellite, reveal the polarization of the CMB, showing how light interacted with early density structures. This allows scientists to refine the age of the universe to 13.8 billion years and measure its mass at 1,900 zetta-suns, confirming the Lambda-CDM model. The data also offer insights into the formation of early galaxies and the distribution of matter, dark matter, and dark energy.