Inflationary epoch

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Experiments Black Hole Initiative (BHI) BOOMERanG Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) Dark Energy Survey Planck space observatory Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey ("2dF") Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)
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In physical cosmology, the inflationary epoch was the period in the evolution of the early universe when, according to inflation theory, the universe underwent an extremely rapid exponential expansion. This rapid expansion increased the linear dimensions of the early universe by a factor of at least 10²⁶ (and possibly a much larger factor), and so increased its volume by a factor of at least 10⁷⁸. Expansion by a factor of 10²⁶ is equivalent to expanding an object 1 nanometer (10⁻⁹ m, about half the width of a molecule of DNA) in length to one approximately 10.6 light years (about 62 trillion miles).