The Discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation is the afterglow of the Big Bang, filling the universe.
It was accidentally discovered in 1964 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson using a radio antenna.
The CMB provides a snapshot of the universe when it was just 380,000 years old.
Its uniformity supports the theory that the universe began with a hot, dense state.
Tiny fluctuations in the CMB reveal the seeds of galaxies and large-scale cosmic structures.
The discovery earned Penzias and Wilson the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Satellite missions like COBE, WMAP, and Planck have mapped the CMB in exquisite detail.
The CMB’s temperature is just 2.7 Kelvin, barely above absolute zero.
It confirmed key predictions of the Big Bang theory over competing steady-state models.
Studying the CMB continues to deepen our understanding of the universe’s origin, composition, and fate.