Inflating the Universe
Our universe is still expanding every since its beginning at the "big bang". Scientists believe, however, that our universe's initial expansion began at a growth almost impossible to comprehend. The universe's inital rate of expansion was one trillionth of a second in quantum scale flutuations. This theory was first proposed by Alexander Friedmann in 1922 and was attacked be serious criticism by Albert Einstein. It was not until later that Eistein retracted his statement on the basis that under the equations of general relativity which do allow for an expanding universe. Today the evidence in favor of this theory is mounting especially with the three years of research the WMAP spacecraft has been collecting. The spacecraft detects cosmic microwave radiation, which is the after glow light of the early universe. The image traces the 13.7 billion years of the universe including its trillionth of a second beginning.