In December 1979 the American physicist Alan Guth, then a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford, had the idea that the very early universe went through a short phase of exponentially rapid expansion, doubling in size perhaps a hundred times in a tiny fraction of a second, driven by a form of energy of empty space. His paper 'The Inflationary Universe' was published in 1981. Inflation explains why the cosmos looks the same in all directions and so nearly flat, and how the seeds of galaxies arose from quantum fluctuations. Andrei Linde, Andreas Albrecht and Paul Steinhardt improved the model. The pattern of the cosmic microwave background supports it.
Before and after
- 1981Establishment of Triglav National Park
- 1981Founding of Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf
- 1981Silver Spring Monkeys
- 1981Origins of London Marathon
- 1981Alan Guth proposes cosmic inflation
- 19811981 becomes the warmest year on record
- from 6 February 1981 to 25 January 1986Ugandan Bush War
- 17 February 1981Birth of Paris Hilton
- 25 March 1981Establishment of Garajonay National Park
More in Universe & space
- 22 June 1978Discovery of Charon
- 20 January 1986Discovery of Ophelia
- 24 April 1990Launch of Hubble Space Telescope
- 1998Supernovae show that cosmic expansion is accelerating
- 20 November 1998Launch of International Space Station
- 10 April 2019The first image of a black hole
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.