![]() ![]() ![]() This "baby picture" of the universe (opens in new tab), as NASA calls it, confirmed Big Bang theory predictions and also showed hints of cosmic structure that were not seen before. While portions of the CMB were mapped in the ensuing decades after its discovery, the first space-based full-sky map came from NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission, which launched in 1989 and ceased science operations in 1993. "By studying these fluctuations, cosmologists can learn about the origin of galaxies and large-scale structures of galaxies and they can measure the basic parameters of the Big Bang theory," NASA wrote. It is at a uniform temperature with only small fluctuations visible with precise telescopes. The CMB is useful to scientists because it helps us learn how the early universe was formed. (Image credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration) (opens in new tab) What does the cosmic microwave background tell us?Īn image of the cosmic microwave background radiation, taken by the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Planck satellite in 2013, shows the small variations across the sky. (Later, Penzias and Wilson both received the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics). Dicke's team got wind of the Bell experiment and realized the CMB had been found.īoth teams quickly published papers in the Astrophysical Journal in 1965, with Penzias and Wilson talking about what they saw, and Dicke's team explaining what it means in the context of the universe. At the same time, a team at Princeton University (led by Robert Dicke) was trying to find the CMB. They soon realized the noise came uniformly from all over the sky. ![]() In 1965, two researchers with Bell Telephone Laboratories (Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson) were creating a radio receiver and were puzzled by the noise it was picking up. This type of hydrogen was created very early in the universe's history.īut the CMB was first found by accident. ![]() The team was doing research related to Big Bang nucleosynthesis, or the production of elements in the universe besides the lightest isotope (type) of hydrogen. (They shared the award with Soviet scientist Pyotr Kapitsa.) (Image credit: Clive Grainger (CfA)) Who discovered the cosmic microwave background?Īmerican cosmologist Ralph Apher first predicted the CMB in 1948, when he was doing work with Robert Herman and George Gamow, according to NASA. Wilson and Penzias won the 1978 Nobel Prize in physics for the find. Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation in 1964 along with Arno Penzias, putting the Big Bang theory on solid footing. ![]()
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