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Cosmic microwave background
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Oval map of the cosmic microwave background radiation from NASA's WMAP mission, showing a mottled pattern of blue, green, yellow, and red representing temperature variations.
Know about the Millennium Simulation at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and learn how to simulate the universe on a personal computer
Understand how the polarization of the light from cosmic background radiation influenced the early development of the universe
cosmic microwave background Planck Three views of the infrared universe by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite.In the view of the full sky (top), radiation represented by the S-shaped blue area is emitted by dust in the solar system. When that light is removed (middle), light from dust in the Milky Way (the band at the centre) and Magellanic Clouds (lower right) remains. A uniform field of cosmic infrared background radiation is revealed when the galactic light is removed (bottom); the dark line at the centre is an artifact of the filtering process.
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cosmic background radiation summary
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The orbits of the planets and other elements of the solar system, including asteroids, Kuiper belt, Oort cloud, comet
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Nicolaus Copernicus. Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) Polish astronomer. In 1543 he published, forward proof of a Heliocentric (sun centered) universe. Coloured stipple engraving published London 1802. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi.
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Cosmic microwave background: References & Edit History

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Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Article title updated for style. Nov 09, 2026
Modified link of Web site: Physics LibreTexts - Introduction to the Cosmic Microwave Background. Aug 20, 2026
Add new Web site: European Space Agency - Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. May 15, 2026
Add new Web site: CORE - Polarization in the Cosmic Microwave Background (PDF). Jan 24, 2026
Add new Web site: Physics LibreTexts - Introduction to the Cosmic Microwave Background. Nov 01, 2025
Add new Web site: EDP Sciences - Astronomy and Astrophysics - The evolution of the cosmic microwave background temperature (PDF). Jun 05, 2025
Add new Web site: APS News - June 1963: Discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Jan 30, 2025
Add new Web site: University of Victoria - Astronomy Research Centre - The Cosmic Microwave Background. Sep 26, 2024
Add new Web site: Khan Academy - The Cosmic Microwave Background. Jul 15, 2024
Add new Web site: NASA - Universe 101 - Tests of Big Bang: The CMB. May 14, 2024
Add new Web site: University of Central Florida Pressbooks - The Cosmic Microwave Background. Apr 05, 2024
Add new Web site: Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian - Cosmic Microwave Background. Feb 23, 2024
Add new Web site: BCcampus Open Publishing - The Cosmic Microwave Background. Dec 22, 2023
Add new Web site: PNAS - Cosmic microwave background theory. Oct 13, 2023
Add new Web site: UCLA Division of Astronomy & Astrophysics - Cosmic Microwave Background. Aug 31, 2023
Add new Web site: Space.com - What is the cosmic microwave background? May 25, 2023
Corrected display issue. Mar 20, 2023
Add new Web site: PennState - College of Earth and Mineral Sciences - John A. Dutton e. Education Institute - The Cosmic Microwave Background. Feb 23, 2023
Add new Web site: OpenStax - Astronomy 2e - The Cosmic Microwave Background. Jan 11, 2023
Add new Web site: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - The cosmic microwave background radiation power spectrum as a random bit generator for symmetric- and asymmetric-key cryptographyd. Sep 14, 2022
Changed the date of the WMAP launch from "1995" to "2001" in the section Discovery of the cosmic background. Nov 18, 2019
Media added. Apr 29, 2016
Added video about computer simulations of the history of the universe. Dec 04, 2015
Age of universe updated from 13.7 to 13.8 billion years. Jul 14, 2010
New article added. Feb 27, 2009
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