Possible traces of Big Bang discovered

Monday, April 30th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Scientists have discovered possible traces of the cosmic match that ignited the Big Bang and created the universe 14 billion years ago, according to published reports.

Two detectors in Antarctica discovered minute patterns _ probably created by microscopic energy fluctuations _ in a glow from primordial gases, The New York Times reported Monday.

The glow, called cosmic microwave background radiation, carried an imprint of large waves to the detectors on Earth. The fluctuations probably set the waves in motion and agitated the young universe.

The findings eased recent astronomer concerns that their Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe might be inaccurate.

``This study provides strong confirmation that, overall, we're using the right model to describe the universe,'' Paul Richards of the University of California at Berkeley told the Washington Post on Monday.

University of Chicago scientists oversee the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer, a microwave detector at a South Pole research station operated by the National Science Foundation, which made the pattern observations.

The announcement was made Monday at a meeting at the American Physical Society in Washington, where two other groups shared similar observations.