In March, cosmologists announced with much fanfare the first direct detection that our universe, in its earliest moments, underwent an unimaginably rapid expansion known as inflation (SN: 4/5/14, p. 6). The researchers had seen twirling patterns in the alignment, or polarization, of the first light released into space just 380,000 years after the Big Bang, what’s known as the cosmic microwave background. Those twirls, the researchers said, could come only from gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space — that spread out in the wake of inflation. If the results held up, this was the type of discovery that wins people a trip to Stockholm.
The key phrase: “if the results held up.” After the initial celebrations, other cosmologists quickly got to work scrutinizing the team’s dramatic conclusions. Concerns have come and gone, but in recent weeks debate has grown about something seemingly mundane: dust. Did the researchers not properly account for the dust in our own galaxy?