Sitting at a desk in a study in his rented home on the same night he made this discovery, Guth realized this exponential expansion would solve the "flatness" problem of the Goldilocks-perfect universe that neither collapsed nor exploded in its first instant. This relentless expansion drove the initial conditions of the universe inevitably toward its present state, a realm of vast emptiness filled with stars.
ADVERTISEMENT
"This was a eureka moment," Guth says, with amusement and utter certainty. "On that notebook page, I wrote 'spectacular realization' in a double box.