A team of researchers achieved a breakthrough by measuring the temperature of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at multiple points in its evolution. This exotic form of matter is thought to have filled the universe only millionths of a second after the big bang, the event that marks the beginning and expansion of the cosmos.

The research sheds new light on how the early universe behaved under extreme heat and density. Earlier attempts at temperature measurements were often uncertain, influenced by factors such as whether they reflected the QGP phase itself or were skewed by Doppler-like effects caused by the plasma’s rapid motion.