CMB Radiation: An important evidence of big bang
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| CMB image constructed from the data sent by WMAP |
After the big bang theory had proposed, a lots of prediction was tested. One of them is the Cosmic MIcrowave Background Radiation. It was first predicted in the year 1948 by Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman, in close relation to work performed by Alpher's PhD advisor George Gamow. In simple word the prediction was like this: If the big bang really had happened, then we must see the radiation of it coming from all around us. The two physicist were able to estimate the temperature of the cosmic microwave background to be 5K, though two years later they re-estimated it at 28K. This was due to a misestimate of the Hubble constant, that's another story.
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| Ralph Alpher |
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| Robert Herman |
Subsequent to the discovery of the CMB, hundreds of cosmic microwave background experiments have been conducted to measure and characterize the signatures of the radiation. First experiment conducted by NASA was COBE mission. It detected an isotropic background of radiation. Inspired by the success of COBE, NASA conducted another space mission named WMAP. The image NASA constructed from the data sent by WMAP is really mind blowing. The image reveals 13.77 billion year old temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences) that correspond to the seeds that grew to become the galaxies.
Information source: Wikipedia, NASA
Image Sources: Ralph Alpher, Robert Herman
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