Researchers from the UK are joining an international effort to find out what the universe looked like after it burst into existence.
Six UK universities are to crunch data and build new instruments for the Simons Observatory, a group of telescopes that Scan the heavens from a vantage point on Cerro Toco.
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) is the heat left over from the birth of the universe and is measured by the observatory. Two more telescopes will be built by UK scientists.
The Science and Technology Facilities Council's associate director for astronomy said that funding for UK researchers would allow them to uncover the secrets from the very dawn of time.
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The existence of the CMB was discovered by US radio astronomy in the 1960's. The heat from the beginning of the universe cooled the microwaves.
Astronomers want to know what the universe looked like after the universe started. As the universe went through a period of expansion known as Cosmic Inflation, many scientists believe that tiny fluctuations in energy became seeds for galaxies.
Astronomers created the biggest map of the universe.
Researchers can work out which of the many models of inflation the universe seems to have followed by measuring the CMB accurately. The observatory wants to shed light on dark matter, the invisible substance that clings to galaxies, and the proposed dark energy thought to drive the expansion of the universe.
From next month, Imperial College London and the universities of Cambridge, Cardiff, Manchester, Oxford and Sussex will commit to new projects at the observatory.
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The school's observatory will map the sky with unprecedented sensitivity over the next decade, according to Prof Erminia Calabrese. She said that small fluctuations in the radiation tell us about the universe's origins, content and evolution.
The new UK investment will allow for new contributions to hardware and data processing with unique UK technologies.
The UK teams are joining the project and Prof Mark Devlin is very excited about it. He said that the addition of the new telescopes and researchers would be a significant addition to the programme.
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