The cosmic microwave background, shown at left in this illustration, is a flash of light that occurred when the young universe cooled enough for electrons and protons to form the first atoms. It ...

A new image of cosmic microwave background radiation (half-sky image at left, closeup at right) adds high definition from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope to an earlier image from the Planck satellite.

Two Cosmic Microwave Background anomalies hinted at by the Planck observatory's predecessor, NASA's WMAP, are confirmed in new high-precision data revealed on March 21, 2013. In this image, ...

A never-before-seen image of the cosmic microwave background, combining data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Planck satellite, offers a high-definition view of the early Universe.

Astrophysicists are poring over new data from Europe’s Planck cosmic background explorer for clues to the period in the early universe known as inflation, when the Big Bang theoretically was ...

Using antennae, scientists first identified the cosmic microwave background in the 1960s. Since then physicists have built more and more sophisticated instruments to capture increasingly better images ...

The image shows the cosmic microwave background radiation visible 380,000 years after the Big Bang. ACT Collaboration; ESA/Planck Collaboration "Before, we got to see where things were, and now we ...

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope has produced the clearest images of the universe at 380,000 years old, revealing detailed polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

That light—the cosmic microwave background (CMB)—continues to stream through the sky in all directions, broadcasting a snapshot of the early universe that’s picked up by dedicated telescopes ...

A never-before-seen image of the cosmic microwave background, combining data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the Planck satellite, offers a high-definition view of the early Universe.