Shouldn't that read, "Helped confirm the Big Bang"...?
Not, "confirmed the Big Bang Theory"...?
Is it not Einstein's equations that confirms the BBT? The picture of a universe that started off very hot and cooled as it expanded was based off of Einstein's theory of gravity, GR/SR, right?
As I understand it the CMBR helps confirm the theories prediction abilities, right?
Or am I misunderstanding something, which could very well be the case lol.
Given that all scientific conclusions are necessarily tentative, to some degree at least, it depends what you mean by "confirmed".
At the end of the day the ultimate judge, jury and executioner of any sciintific theory
must be empirical reality. I am sure that you agree.
Thus, whilst Einstein's GR certainly gave considerable theoretical weight to the idea of the BB, the true empirical test and therefore "confirmation" (beyond reasonable doubt) was the empirical discovery of the predicted CMBR and the practical measurement of it as compared to theory.
Whilst one theory can support another all theories in science are ultimately subject to empirical results.
Thus the detection and measurement of the predicted CMBR is the practical, empirical confirmation of the BB no matter how strongly various related theories might theoretically corroborate each other.
Edited by Straggler, : No reason given.
™ Version 4.2