BICEP2

BICEP2 was a scientific experiment designed to detect faint patterns in the universe’s earliest light, called the cosmic microwave background. Specifically, it looked for signs of gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime—produced moments after the Big Bang. In 2014, BICEP2 announced it had found evidence of these waves, suggesting the universe experienced very rapid expansion, known as inflation. However, later analysis showed that much of the signal they detected was likely caused by dust within our galaxy, not primordial gravitational waves. The experiment advanced our understanding of the universe’s beginnings and the techniques used to study cosmic signals.