Via a curious universal pattern of correlated pairs of objects:
One curious pattern cosmologists have known about for decades is that space is filled with correlated pairs of objects: pairs of hot spots seen in telescopes’ maps of the early universe; pairs of galaxies or of galaxy clusters or superclusters in the universe today; pairs found at all distances apart. You can see these “two-point correlations” by moving a ruler all over a map of the sky. When there’s an object at one end, cosmologists find that this ups the chance that an object also lies at the other end.
The simplest explanation for the correlations traces them to pairs of quantum particles that fluctuated into existence as space exponentially expanded at the start of the Big Bang. Pairs of particles that arose early on subsequently moved the farthest apart, yielding pairs of objects far away from each other in the sky today. Particle pairs that arose later separated less and now form closer-together pairs of objects. Like fossils, the pairwise correlations seen throughout the sky encode the passage of time — in this case, the very beginning of time
Natalie Wolchover, “Cosmic Triangles Open a Window to the Origin of Time” at Quanta
Some physicists think we should have found more arrangements involving three or even four particles.
Our physics color commentator and author of Genesis: The Long Ascent and The Long Ascent, Volume II ,Rob Sheldon offers some thoughts on trying to exactly guess the origin of the universe:
Once upon a time, the universe was static, eternal, and unchanging. Then came Genesis, and there was light. No, no, said the wise men, it has no creator, it is eternal. Then came Einstein, Lemaitre and Pope Pius XII and there was light. No, no, said the wise men, the cosmos is dynamic and eternal. Then came Peebles, Dicke and Penzias and there was light. No, no, said the wise men, the cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be, it is cyclic and eternal. Then came Hawking and Penrose, and there was light. No, no said the wise men, it is dark, really dark: dark energy, dark matter, and dark multiverses; dark string theory, dark time, dark inflation, dark purposes and yes, even dark math.
Well then how can anyone know anything about the cosmos? Theorist Daniel Baumann explains,
” He compared the primordial universe to a system like water or a magnet very near the critical point where it undergoes a phase transition. “We live in a very special place,” he said.”
And there was light.
Don’t like that story? Just wait. There are others.