Microwave Background

Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
(CMB / CMBR)

 

The faint “echoes” of the Big Bang
It has been detected in the form of a cosmic microwave background radiation that pervades the whole Universe.

Echoes from expansion after the Big Bang

.
Microwave Background

• background radiation – the temperature of the Big Bang has cooled to around +2.6ºC.

.
Spacecraft: Explorer 66 – COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer)

• In 1993, the first images of this radiation were produced by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) spacecraft.
• The COBE image shows the minute variations in temperature (pink = warmer / blue = cooler) that were predicted by the Big Bang theorists.

The famous first map of the CMB anisotropy formed from
data taken by the COBE spacecraft.

Comparison of Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) results
from COBE, WMAP and Planck.

.
More information

• COBE – Cosmic Background Explorer (CMB) / Spacecraft Explorer 66 – Wikipedia
• WMAP – Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe / Spacecraft Explorer 80- Wikipedia / Website: NASA WMAP
• Planck – COBRAS / SAMBA Space telescope – Wikipedia / Website: ESA Planck

.
.
Back to  The Universe  page / next to  Objects  page.