This is the age of precision cosmology
This is the age of so-called precision cosmology
In an interesting article in NY Times about the struggle to measure cosmic expansion , the quip that I found the most pithy was about how the precision cosmology has become so important.
I know, it is an old statement; in July 1999, Wendy Freedoman announced that “after all these years, we are finally entering an era of precision cosmology”; and one could argue that the one of the first proof of relativity with perihelion of mercury can also be called “precision cosmology”; but every time I hear the statement, it sounds truer.
You know that the cosmology is gotten very precise, when a top forty band sings a love song, and in passing mentions that the universe is 12 billion yrs old; and she is challenged on it and asked to correct her lyrics to accurately reflect that the universe is really 13.7 billion yrs old!
There is so much physics yet to be explored and extracted from the precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background. The precision power decay and and the spectra measurements of various supernova bursts will tell us so much about the internal structure of these objects. Precision cosmology with weak gravitational lensing has helped us figure out the distribution of dark matter.
Like in any other precision experiments, there are systematic errors that one needs to be mindful of, but in the next decade we will learn so much from the precisely measured cosmic dance moves.
