Inflation has persisted as a strong hypothesis of the early universe because it solves many problems at once. For one, it explains why the cosmos appears geometrically flat: It's so big that, despite ...

The scientists' calculations show that this universe mode's properties, such as the curvature of space and the microwave background, match current observations, supporting their hypothesis.

For one, it explains why the cosmos appears geometrically flat: It's so big that, despite its overall curvature, any patch of the universe will appear flat. It also explains why regions of the ...

Cosmic inflation is a faster-than-light expansion of the universe that spawned many others ... either in on itself like a ball (“positive” curvature) or out on itself like a saddle ...