Captured by the European Space Agency's Planck space probe, the?most detailed map of the early universe reveals a host of unexpected anomalies.?
This European Space Agency graphic shows a map of the universe that depicts the anomalies seen when comparing the Planck space observatory's map of the universe's cosmic microwave background and the standard model of the cosmos. Image released
ESA and the Planck Collaboration
EnlargeEurope's Planck spacecraft has revealed the most detailed map yet of the earliest light in the universe, which reveals some tantalizing anomalies that could point toward new physics.
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
The new map tracks small temperature variations in the glow pervading space called the cosmic microwave background (CMB). This light was released just 380,000 years after the Big Bang, and contains a record of how our universe came to be.
By and large, the new data from Planck agree with cosmologists' leading ideas about how the universe formed. The theory of inflation suggests that after the Big Bang, the universe ballooned rapidly from its tiny, hot state, doubling in size every 10^-35 seconds (a decimal point followed by 34 zeroes and a one).
But where the basic models of inflation say this expansion should have happened uniformly in all directions, the new Planck results suggest that might not have been the case. [Universe's CMB Radiation Explained (Infographic)]
"One of the features of inflation is it says there should be no preferred direction ? everywhere in the universe should be more or less the same," astrophysicist Marc Kamionkowski of Johns Hopkins University said March 21 during a NASA press call. "But when you look at the amplitudes, even by eye you can tell that one side of the universe looks different from the other side."
That is to say, the temperature variations in the CMB appear to be sized and spaced differently when Planck looks in one direction, than when it looks in the other.
There are other anomalies as well. The variations don't appear to behave the same on large scales as they do on small scales, and there are some particularly large features, such as a hefty cold spot, that were not predicted by basic inflation models.
Ultimately, the data show "some features that are surprising and very, very intriguing," said Charles Lawrence, U.S. Planck project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Hopefully in the process of understanding those features better we will be able to glimpse answers to some of our deepest questions."
Indeed, the map's deviations from what was predicted are not cause for disappointment among scientists, but rather exhilaration. They could even lead toward unraveling the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, two perplexing constituents of the universe that have yet to be explained by mainstream theories.
For example, the new CMB measurements produce a new estimate for the age and expansion rate of the universe, which the Planck scientists calculate to be 13.8 billion years old, and 41.73 miles (67.15 kilometers) per second per megaparsec, respectively. The expansion rate is also known as the Hubble constant, and the new estimate is significantly lower than the values derived through other astronomical observations.
"This is one of the most exciting parts of the data, is this apparent tension between these different ways to estimate how rapidly the universe is expanding," said Martin White, U.S. Planck scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. "The hope would be that this is actually pointing toward some deficiency in the models or some extra physics."
The expansion rate of the universe is deeply connected to the idea of dark energy, which is the name scientists have given to whatever is causing the universe's expansion to accelerate. The finding could point toward a new direction of thinking about dark energy, including the possibility that it has changed over time.
"If it was different than the simplest models, if the amount of dark energy was somehow increasing with time in a given volume of space, then that would alleviate some of the tension," White said, and added, "that's a pretty radical thing to propose."
And getting to the bottom of the other anomalies in the Planck data may point to even more radical conclusions, such as the idea of multiple universes and bubble universes created by areas of the primordial universe that inflated at different rates.
It turns out that collisions between these bubbles of space-time are one possible explanation for why inflation might not have proceeded uniformly in all directions.
"The fact that these anomalies not only exist but exist on the very largest scales gives us some hope that we may be actually able to say something in the future about a multiverse," Kamionkowski said.
Follow Clara Moskowitz on Twitter?and Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
freedom tower freedom tower eric church quick silver where have you been rihanna world trade center kirk cousins
At House of Freedom we have been offering drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation program services in Orlando Florida for more than 20 years and our research shows that drug abuse is more common than ever before. What further worsens the condition is that number of individuals developing such dependencies is at an all-time high. Illicit use of drugs has grave implications on almost every area of an addict?s life and the human body is no exception.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 20-Mar-2013
Share ] 
Over time, such relationships become close and personal, but the opposite can also happen. Many exit surveys have shown that employees have left an organization because of poor working relationship with an immediate superior. Therefore, it is essential that managers institutionalize effective lower-level communication channels. Of equal importance is communication between and within levels. Intra-national and international competition is now so fierce that everyone in the organization needs to collaborate closely on solving organizational challenges and achieving agreed strategic objectives. Any organization saddled with communication barriers is erring on the wrong side. The main reason behind ineffective communication at workplace is the loose perception that lower level communication is just a cake-walk. Unlike normal day-to-day communication, workplace communication covers different levels and aspects such as marketing, customer relations, management etc. With such diversity, managers must be equipped with unique skill sets for effective communication at workplace. Workplace communication involves individuals, teams or large groups. 
