New baby pictures of the universe deepen a cosmic mystery

Cosmic expansion rate questions persist, but the standard cosmology model holds

A high-altitude observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile, surrounded by an arid landscape with distant mountains under a deep blue sky. The facility consists of a large, circular telescope structure and a few small buildings.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (pictured) in Chile is designed to gather intel on the cosmic microwave background, the thermal afterglow of the Big Bang.

Princeton University

The clearest pictures yet of the newborn cosmos strengthen the prevailing model of the universe but deepen a mystery about its expansion rate.