In the first moments after the Big Bang, the universe expanded faster than light could cross it. This expansion left a subtle ripple in the distribution of matter, like the rings on water from a thrown stone. Traces of that ripple are visible today in how galaxies cluster into groups and filaments.

Astronomers have learned to read these traces in a new way. Instead of looking only at large-scale structures, they reconstruct the entire picture — from the largest structures down to fine details. It's like reconstructing the original throw of the stone from all the rings on the water, including the faintest ones. The method uses computer simulations where virtual galaxies are born from the same initial conditions as real ones.

The accuracy has improved by a factor of 1.5 compared to previous approaches. This means that future sky surveys, such as Euclid, will be able to more reliably separate signal from random noise. And thus — get closer to answering what made the universe inflate so rapidly in the first fractions of a second.