U.S. and Welsh researchers say they've obtained a detailed picture of the early universe using a telescope in the Antarctic.

The researchers led by Professors Walter Gear of Cardiff University and Sarah Church of Stanford University said their measurements of the cosmic microwave background provide further support for the standard cosmological model of the universe.

They said their findings confirm the model's prediction that dark matter and dark energy make up 95 percent of everything in existence, while ordinary matter makes up just 5 percent.

"When I first started in this field, some people were adamant that they understood the contents of the universe quite well. But that understanding was shattered when evidence for dark energy was discovered," Church said. "Now that we again feel we have a very good understanding of what makes up the universe, it's extremely important for us to amass strong evidence using many different measurement techniques that this model is correct, so that this doesn't happen again."

The study is reported in The Astrophysical Journal.